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THE CHURCH AND ITS FUNCTION 
IN SOCIETY 


OXFORD CONFERENCE BOOKS 


Church and State on the European Continent 
By Adolf Keller 

Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts 
By William Paton 

(Other Titles to Follow) 


THE CHURCH 
AND ITS FUNCTION 
IN SOCIETY 


by 

Dr. W. A. VISSER ’T HOOFT 

AND! ■ 

Dr. J. H. OLDHAM 



Willett, Clark & Company 

NEW YORK 


CHICAGO 


1937 




TfcV/fcO 0 



Copyright 1937 by 
WILLETT, CLARK & COMPANY 


Manufactured in The U.S.A. by The Plimpton Press 
Norwood, Mass.-La Porte, Ind. 


©Cl b 117314 

cA 


Printed in Great Britain 
by Unwin Brothers, Ltd. 


APR 11 1938 



PREFACE 


his volume has been written in connection with the 



X Oxford Conference on Church, Community and 
State. It is plain that the relation of the church to the 
community and to the state can be profitably considered 
only in the light of two fundamental questions. The first 
is the nature of the church. The second is the functions of 
the church in relation to society. These two questions are 
the subject of the present volume. Dr. W. A. Visser ’t 
Hooft deals with the first in chapters two to four, and the 
rest of the volume is concerned with the second. 

Six other volumes in connection with the Oxford Con¬ 
ference are in preparation and will be published, it is 
hoped, in the autumn of the present year. Several refer¬ 
ences to them are made in the following pages. Each of 
these volumes contains contributions from writers in dif¬ 
ferent countries representing different Christian traditions. 
The titles of the volumes are: 

The Christian Understanding of Man 
The Kingdom of God and History 
The Christian Faith and the Common Life 
Church and Community 

Churchy Community and State in Relation to 
Education 

The Universal Church and the World of Na¬ 
tions 

On the subject of the relation of the church to the state, a 
volume by Mr. Nils Ehrenstrom is being published under 


V 



VI 


Preface 


the title, Christian Faith and the Modern State . This may 
be regarded as in many respects supplementary to the pres¬ 
ent volume. Other valuable contributions to the same sub¬ 
ject, also prepared with the Oxford Conference in view, are 
Church and State on the European Continent , by Adolf 
Keller, and Church and State in Contemporary America, 
by William Adams Brown, both already published. 

Another volume valuable in its own right and in its aid 
to the Oxford Conference is Christianity in the Eastern 
Conflicts , by William Paton. 

The present volume has this advantage, that it has grown 
out of several group discussions and that earlier drafts were 
submitted to a large number of persons for criticism. It 
suffers from the disadvantage that the writing of it has been 
controlled by a timetable. Comments on two successive 
drafts of a paper on the functions of the church were re¬ 
ceived from nearly a hundred persons in different countries 
representing many different points of view. These com¬ 
ments, many of which ran to a considerable number of 
pages, contained a wealth of suggestion of which free use 
has been made. It is impossible to make acknowledgment 
by name to those who have given such generous help. The 
chapters by Dr. Visser ’t Hooft were similarly read and 
commented on by a number of critics. 

On the other hand, to be compelled to send the earlier 
chapters to the press before the later ones are written is not 
the ideal way to produce a good book. This procedure 
was unavoidable, however, if faith was to be kept with the 
delegates to the Oxford Conference. The indulgence of 
readers is asked for blemishes which greater leisure for re¬ 
vision would have made it possible to remove. 

Mr. Nils Ehrenstrom spent two or three weeks with me 
while the volume was being prepared and collaborated in 
the writing of chapter four, “ The Church and the World,” 


Preface 


vii 

and the final chapter, “ The Spring of Christian Action.’* 
Without the help of his wide theological knowledge these 
chapters could not have been written, and considerable 
parts of them are from his hand. 

I have to thank my colleagues, Mr. Eric Fenn and Miss 
Olive Wyon, for many helpful suggestions, and in particu¬ 
lar for reading the proof and preparing the index. 

It is not an easy task to do justice to the different tenden¬ 
cies in Christian thought on the subject of the church and 
its functions in society. This volume does not profess to 
accomplish what must be the task of many years. Its aim 
is not to put forward conclusions but to initiate and stimu¬ 
late discussion. It will serve its purpose if, in spite of many 
imperfections in execution, it helps in some measure to 
clarify the issues and to direct attention to questions with 
which Christian thought must concern itself in the years 
to come. 


J. H. Oldham 



CONTENTS 


Preface v 

The Occasion and the Setting i 

PART 1 

THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES 
by Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft 

Foreword 7 

I. The Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the 

Church 11 

II. The Churches in History 47 

III. The Church as an Ecumenical Society 76 

PART II 

THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH IN SOCIETY 
by Dr. J. H. Oldham 

IV. The Predicament of the Church 91 

V. The Church: Some Necessary Distinctions 101 

VI. The Church and the World 108 


Contents 


VII. The Functions of the Church 140 

VIII. The Nature of the Corporate Life 162 

IX. The Witness and Action of the Church in the 

Corporate Life 174 

X. The Witness and Action of the Church as an 

Organized Society 191 

XI. The Spring of Christian Action 217 


THE OCCASION AND THE SETTING 
by Dr. J. H. Oldham 

F or those who hold, or are held by, the Christian 
faith, and who are moved by Christian compassion 
for the distresses, frustrations and anxieties of mankind, no 
more momentous question can be posed than that which 
asks how the church can bear its witness, fulfill its mission, 
and be the messenger of God’s redeeming mercy to the 
world. The assembling together at Oxford of representa¬ 
tives of the church from all parts of the world to examine 
this question and to face this responsibility is an occasion 
that must quicken hope. The fruitfulness of the delibera¬ 
tions depends, however, on the measure in which the issues 
at stake are apprehended in their true gravity. It is a vital 
question whether the conference deals with them at a super¬ 
ficial level, or pierces to their real depths. 

There is a widespread sense, which finds expression in 
the writings and utterances of many serious thinkers, 
Christian and non-Christian, that we stand today at one 
of the major turning points in history. The basic assum p- 
tions which ha ve hitherto given meaning to existence, an d 
unity and stability to civilization, have lost their unques¬ 
tioned validity. An epoch in the life of mankind is draw- 
in g to a cl ose, and we are on the threshold of a new age in 
which conceptions of life that are still struggling in the 
womb of time will rule men’s minds and direct their con¬ 
duct. We are not concerned here to inquire how far and 
in what sense these assertions are true. It is not the task of 
the conference at Oxford to attempt to formulate a phi- 

















2 The Church and Its Function in Society 

losophy of history. What is important for our present pur¬ 
pose is the indubitable fact that we live in the midst of 
profound and far-reaching change. The relative stability 
of the world which existed before the war has gone. The 
foundations of human society are quivering. The fact 
itself none will dispute, but our minds become dulled by 
familiarity to its significance. We give it our indolent 
assent, and contentedly resume the tenor of our habitual 
attitudes. There can, however, be no true wrestling with 
the realities of the contemporary situation except in so 
far as we allow their meaning to break through the crust 
of our customary thinking into those deeper levels of our 
being in which our experience is absorbed and organized, 
so that there will take place progressively, and to a large 
extent subconsciously, a reconstruction of our whole out¬ 
look and a reorientation of our fundamental attitudes. 

An openness of the mind and of the whole being to the 
realities of the world in which the church must today fulfill 
her mission is essential if deliberations are to be fruitful. 
For this receptivity will determine the scale and propor¬ 
tion of what is thought and said and done, and set the meas¬ 
ure of our desires and expectations. It will make all the 
difference to the discussions whether the assumption, con¬ 
scious or unexpressed, is that all that is needed to enable 
the church to fulfill its mission is an extension and im¬ 
provement of its present organization, activities and metlu 
ods; or whether we are willing that these familiar forms 
give place, if God so will, to others more adequate to meet 
the needs of the present time, and are ready to allow the 
stream of Christian life to break out in fresh ways and 
create for itself new channels of expression. It is of no 
small moment whether, when we speak of the church, we 
picture to ourselves the church as we have hitherto known 
it, or whether we think in trustful expectancy of the church 


The Occasion and the Setting 3 

which it is in God’s power to fashion as the instrument for 
the fulfillment of his purpose in our time and in the days 
to come. 

It is fitting that discussion of the relations between 
church and community, and church and state, take as 
its starting point a fresh consideration of the meaning of 
the church and of the nature of its mission. That the 
church of Christ is the one hope of the world is the faith 
we confess in meeting in conference at Oxford. But this 
faith, which is the master light of all our seeing, is far from 
warranting the conclusion that the same thing can be 
predicated of the churches which send representatives to 
Oxford. We fall too easily into the mistake of equating 
God’s purpose for the church with what our limited under¬ 
standing and imperfect embodiment of that purpose make 
of the church as it actually exists. We believe that to the 
church is entrusted the truth which has power to save the 
world, but this treasure, as St. Paul reminds us, is contained 
in vessels of clay. In the divine and human institution of 
the church the human element is always tending to limit 
and obscure and even to deny the divine. God’s way with 
men is to lead them to repentance, in order that, being 
delivered from their corrupt and paralyzing past, they may 
serve him in newness of life. A profound dissatisfaction 
with what the church now is, with what it now sees, with 
its present understanding of its message and its responsi¬ 
bilities, is the spiritual soil in which the seeds of new life 
may germinate. It is when we have come to despair of our¬ 
selves that the divine mercy meets us, and we learn to put 
our whole trust and confidence in God. 

In a gathering at the present time of representatives of 
the church from different parts of the world there cannot 
be absent a sense of the responsibility of historical decision. 
A heightened appreciation of the significance of history is 


4 The Church and Its Function in Society 

characteristic of our time. Even in its secular forms this 
point of view doubtless owes more than it is often aware of 
to Christian thought. It is at least a view that is wholly 
congruous with the Christian understanding of life. For 
Christian faith is concerned from first to last with the 
mighty acts of God in human history. God is at work in 
history. He has a purpose in it, and he calls men to share in 
the fulfillment of that purpose. The fact that we live in 
history and form part of history implies that not only to 
prophets and heroes but also to ordinary men there may 
come moments when important events may hinge on their 
choice and action. Through the issues considered by the 
Oxford Conference, God may be calling the church to de¬ 
cide whether it is content to follow beaten and well tried 
paths, or is ready at his command to meet the unknown 
and uncertain future in fresh and bold adventures of faith. 


PART I 

THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES 

by 

Dr. W. A. VISSER T HOOFT 








/ 




FOREWORD 


D uring the process of common thought and study which 
has been in progress through the last few years on the 
relations between church, community and state, it has be¬ 
come increasingly obvious that at the heart of the whole 
discussion of these issues is a question of fundamental im¬ 
portance: What is the nature and mission of the church 
with whose attitude toward social and political problems 
we are concerned? Unless there is an understanding in 
regard to that basic question, the whole discussion must be 
involved in confusion, and those who participate in it must 
find themselves at cross-purposes. 

It is not our specific task to consider that question with 
a view to the ultimate reunion of the churches. That is the 
special responsibility of the Edinburgh Conference on 
Faith and Order. But there are two reasons why we must 
face the problem of the church. One is that the real dif¬ 
ferences between the various conceptions of the church 
must be brought into the open, so that the misunderstand¬ 
ings may be avoided which would inevitably arise if it were 
taken for granted that all use the word “ church ” in the 
same sense. The other one is that it must be made clear 
what the Oxford Conference itself means when it speaks 
of the church. 

This part of the present volume has therefore two main 
objects: first, to provide a brief survey of the various mean¬ 
ings which are attached to the term “ church ” as used in 
ecumenical gatherings; second, to attempt to answer these 
two questions: Is there a Church in the churches? and, Can 
the churches speak and act together? 

7 


8 The Church and Its Function in Society 

The first and second chapters deal with the various doc¬ 
trinal conceptions of the church, and with the churches in 
history. This may seem a somewhat arbitrary division, but 
it has proved to be the only one which would make it pos¬ 
sible to do justice to the two main sets of influences which 
have actually shaped the various conceptions of the church 
and its relation to the world, namely, the theological and 
the sociological. A purely theological treatment would 
give a misleading impression of the real meaning which the 
word “ church ” has today in many places. A purely so¬ 
ciological treatment would be even more misleading in that 
it would neglect the essential nature of the church as a 
God-given community. The reality of the church is always 
a tension between its divine intention and its actual life in 
the world, and in order to understand it both these aspects 
need to be taken into consideration. It is, of course, im¬ 
possible for reasons of space to describe each individual 
church from these two points of view; thus the only possi¬ 
ble solution seems to be to speak first of the main doctrinal 
conceptions of the church, and then of the different histori¬ 
cal situations in which the churches find themselves today. 
In both cases I have, of course, been compelled to simplify 
the complexity of the real situation by dealing only with 
some of the main types, and by leaving out whatever seemed 
exceptional rather than typical. Even so, I do not claim 
that I have dealt adequately with the various conceptions 
of the church or with the various geographical situations. 
But I hope that the chapters may at least serve to demon¬ 
strate the great variety of doctrine and background which 
the reader will have to take into account before he can 
start on his work of clarification. 

This whole section on the various conceptions of the 
church is meant to be purely descriptive. It is based largely 
on compilation from various sources, the most important 


Foreword 


9 

of which are a document prepared by Dr. Oldham, and the 
comments on that document made by other collaborators 
in the preparation for the Oxford Conference. 1 

The third chapter, “ The Church as an Ecumenical So¬ 
ciety,” is of a somewhat different character. In it I have 
tried to indicate briefly what seem to be the main issues 
arising out of the variety in the doctrinal and historical 
backgrounds of the participating churches. 

i Quotations without further bibliographical reference have generally 
been taken from memoranda which have been prepared in connection with 
the conference at Oxford. 


I 

THE VARIOUS DOCTRINAL CONCEPTIONS 
OF THE CHURCH 


T he purpose of this chapter is to give a survey of the 
main doctrinal positions held by the church. In other 
words, the question to be answered in each case is: How 
does each church, or group of churches, understand itself 
and its relation to the church universal? This inquiry will 
of necessity have to be based on representative utterances 
of the various church bodies. In some cases the actual 
thought about the church which is finding expression in 
preaching, in literature and in action differs considerably 
from the official doctrinal position. But those cases will be 
dealt with in the next section on the churches in history. 

Since it is quite impossible to enumerate and describe 
all particular churches or denominations within the allotted 
space, it has been necessary to group all conceptions of the 
church under some main headings. If some conceptions 
seem to be dealt with more fully, and others less fully, than 
seems justifiable in the light of their qualitative or quanti¬ 
tative significance, the reason is merely the necessity of 
bringing out the distinctive traits and differences rather 
than the similarities. A short introductory section at¬ 
tempts to give a brief survey of the present position of New 
Testament studies concerning the church. 

1. THE COMMON APPEAL TO THE NEW TESTAMENT 

All Christian churches claim to have their roots in the 
New Testament. Their differences are therefore largely, 

u 


12 The Church and Its Function in Society 

though not wholly, based on differing interpretations of 
the New Testament conception of the church and of its 
faith and order. This common appeal to the New Testa¬ 
ment, however, represents at the same time the dynamic 
element in the discussion among the churches. For, in so 
far as the churches not only use the New Testament to 
prove their particular claims but are willing to reconsider 
their doctrines in the light of their understanding of that 
document, biblical exegesis becomes a main agent in the 
ecumenical situation. The interpretation of the Bible is 
a historical process, during which times of far-reaching 
agreement are followed by times of disagreement or com¬ 
plete anarchy. And its influence upon the ecumenical 
situation varies accordingly. It is therefore worth while 
to ask, at the outset of our discussion of the nature of the 
church, how present-day biblical scholarship affects our 
common thinking about the church and its nature. 

During the last fifty years a remarkable shift has taken 
place in regard to the understanding of the church in the 
New Testament. In the eighties of the last century there 
was (at least among Protestant scholars) almost general 
agreement in laying the emphasis on the conception of the 
church as a religious ass ociation . 1 The devout Christian 
came first. He and his fellow believers united in free asso¬ 
ciation to create a congregation, and the church was simply 
the conglomeration of such congregations. The whole 
conception of the church was individualistic, democratic 
and atomistic. The New Testament church was inter¬ 
preted in terms of sociological and humanitarian ideas. 

In the decades which followed, that view was increasingly 
abandoned; but it is only in the last few years that some¬ 
thing like a new consensus on the essential aspects of the 

1 See Olof Linton, Das Problem der Urkirche in der neueren Forsch- 
ung, 1932. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 13 

New Testament church has begun to form. Some of the 
main affirmations on which scholars of different countries 
and different confessions to a large extent agree are here 
outlined. 

It is seen that the thought of the New Testament is gov¬ 
erned by religious and not by political categories, that the 
church is built from above and not from below, and that 
its source is in God and not in man. This interpretation 
implies the following main insights: 

“ The one universal church is primary, the local society 
expresses the life and unity of the whole,” 2 for “ from the 
outset the church was understood universally and each 
fraction of it was a ‘ church ’ in so far as the part was a 
miniature of the whole.” 3 Thus the church is “ a body of 
men and women in which the unity of every part corre¬ 
sponds to, repeats, represents and in fact is the unity of the 
whole.” 4 

T he idea o f the church as ex pressed in the New T esta- 
ment is a qualitative rathei^than a quantitative idea . 5 The 
church exists where God calls his people together. It is not 
merely a new religious organization, but a new creation of 
God, and is therefore nothing less than the church of God. 

What this means becomes especially clear if one asks how 
the New Testament conceives of the relation between 
Christ and the church. C. H. Dodd thus summarizes the 
ecclesiology of St. Paul: 

It was not enough to say that Christ, being exalted to the 
right hand of God, had “ poured forth ” the Spirit. The pres¬ 
ence of the Spirit in the church is the presence of the Lord: 
“ the Lord is the Spirit.” Thus the “ one body ” which the one 

2 A. M. Ramsey, The Gospel and the Catholic Church, 1936. 

3 E. F. Scott. 

4 Sir Edwyn Hoskyns, The Riddle of the New Testament, 1931. 

s K. L. Schmidt, “ Ekklesia,” Theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen 
Testament. 







14 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Spirit created is the body of Christ. To be “ in the Spirit ” is 
to be “ in Christ,” that is to say, a member of the body of 
Christ.® 

And K. L. Schmidt says that St. Paul’s ecclesiology is simply 
Christology, and vice versa. 6 7 

At the same time recent scholarship has come to consider 
the church as part of the primitive kerygma. C. H. Dodd 
shows that the ideas of the Spirit in the church and of the 
calling of the church as the Israel of God, which are so 
prominent in the Pauline Epistles, are not innovations of 
St. Paul, but part of the tradition which he had received, 
that is, part of the gospel common to all or most early 
preachers. 8 And several, though by no means all, New 
Testament scholars believe that the verdict against the his¬ 
torical character of the passages in Matthew 26 and 28 (the 
only ones in which the word ekklesia appears in Jesus’ own 
teaching) should be revised, and (or) that the Last Supper 
represents the actual founding of the new church. 

But in spite of these important points of agreement there 
remain basic differences in interpretation. These have to 
do especially with the meaning of the eschatological ele¬ 
ment in the New Testament conception of the church, and 
with the relation of that conception to the later develop¬ 
ment of Catholicism. 

That the New Testament church should be understood 
eschatologically is generally agreed. “ The church was the 
society of the future age.” 9 “ The church is the germ of 
the kingdom of God.” 10 “ The church is necessary, be¬ 

cause the end is near.” 11 But the question remains, How 
should this eschatology be interpreted? Is this eschatology 
“ realized eschatology ” which implies a certain ontological 

6 The Apostolic Preaching, 1937. 

7 Loc. cit. 

8 Loc. cit. 


9 E. F. Scott. 

10 Martin Dibelius. 

11 Olof Linton. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 15 

identification between Christ and the church, or is it 
“ futurist eschatology ” in the sense that the church in this 
dispensation is essentially a waiting church which lives by 
the promise of the kingdom of God? The answers given 
to this question depend, of course, on the answer given to 
the problem of the meaning of eschatology throughout the 
New Testament. 

Some underline the presence of the supernatural life in 
the church. Thus C. H. Dodd speaks of a “ transforma¬ 
tion ” (in the thought of St. Paul) of “ futurist escha¬ 
tology ” into a “ Christ-mysticism,” and says: “ That super¬ 
natural order of life which the apocalyptists had predicted 
in times of pure fantasy is now described as an actual fact 
of experience. ... In masterly fashion St. Paul has 
claimed the whole territory of the church’s life as the field 
of the eschatological miracle.” 12 And L. S. Thornton says 
of the primitive church: “ In the place of that objective 
historical manifestation of divine love in terms of human 
life which they had seen in Christ they now possessed an 
interior presence of indwelling love in the fellowship of 
the Christian community.” 13 But others stress the fact that 
the church is the community of those who live by faith and 
not by sight. Thus K. L. Schmidt says: “ The church is 
never triumphans, but only militans, that is to say, pressa; 
ecclesia triumphans would be the kingdom of God, and no 
longer ecclesia.” 14 And Hebert Roux: 

The church is, in this fallen world, the body to which the 
grace has been given to hear and receive in faith the promise 
of the kingdom of Christ. ... At the end of his work of re¬ 
demption which he has achieved and which is the restoration 
of the kingdom, Christ returns to his Father and shows thus 
that it remains for the church to believe in the kingdom. The 

12 The Apostolic Preaching, 1937. 

13 in Essays Catholic and Critical, 1929. 

14 Loc. cit. 


16 The Church and Its Function in Society 

ascension inaugurates the time of the church, the time of faith 
and of witness by the Holy Spirit. 

The difference between these two views seems at first 
sight merely a difference in emphasis, but it may lead to 
far-reaching consequences. If the church is primarily con¬ 
ceived as being in possession of supernatural life, it will 
be thought of as an “ extension of the incarnation,” and as 
a body the life and tradition of which carry a certain au¬ 
thority within themselves. On the other hand, if the 
church is primarily viewed as existing “ between the 
times,” and the fundamental difference between the church 
and the kingdom is strongly underlined, it will be held that 
the church remains exclusively dependent on the revela¬ 
tion in the New Testament message as “ over against ” its 
own life. In the same way the two views will lead to dif¬ 
ferent conceptions of the attitude of the church toward the 
world, for the first view tends to emphasize the continuity 
between nature and grace and' the progressive realization 
of the kingdom in the world, while the second tends to em¬ 
phasize the discontinuity between nature and grace and 
the transcendent and revolutionary character of the 
kingdom. 

Closely connected with this problem therefore is the 
other problem of the relations between the New Testa¬ 
ment church and the Catholic Church of the second and 
subsequent centuries. Just as there is considerable differ¬ 
ence among scholars on the right interpretation of New 
Testament eschatology, so there is difference in this matter. 
But since a discussion of this issue leads automatically to a 
discussion of matters of church order, which are not di¬ 
rectly relevant to our subject, it need not be dealt with 
here. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 17 

2 . THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 

The church doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, 
both by the support which it lends in matters in which 
there is agreement and by the contradiction which it pro¬ 
vokes where there is disagreement, possesses a high degree 
of importance in the consideration of the relation of the 
church to the social and political life of our time. 

According to the definition of Bellarmine, the church 
may be described as “ a body of men united together by 
the profession of the same Christian faith and by participa¬ 
tion in the same sacraments, under the governance of law¬ 
ful pastors, more especially of the Roman pontiff, the sole 
Vicar of Christ on earth.” 

The eternal Father in his eternal love has sent the Son 
into the world. It is man’s duty to believe absolutely in 
this_JXvelation^-and to obey the commandments of God. 
But in order to make possible this obedience, Christ has 
founded his church as a perfect society, external of its own 
nature and visible. 15 The incarnate Son of God has ap¬ 
pointed the pope, the successor of St. Peter, as his repre¬ 
sentative, and conferred on him the threefold power to 
heal, to teach, and to govern. As Leo XIII declared in his 
encyclical lmmortale Dei : 

The only-begotten Son of God established on earth a society 
which is called the church, and to it he handed over the exalted 
and divine office which he had received from his Father, to be 
continued through the ages to come. Over this mighty multi¬ 
tude God has himself set rulers with power to govern; and he 
has willed that one should be the head of all, and the chief and 
unerring teacher of truth, to whom he has given the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven. . . . Just as the end at which the church 
aims is by far the noblest of ends, so is its authority the most 
exalted of all authority, nor can it be looked upon as inferior 
to the civil power, or in any manner dependent upon it. 

15 Encyclical Mortalium animos. 


















18 The Church and Its Function in Society 

The church is the vehicle both of the divine will and 
of the divine love. As the vehicle of the former it is a legal 
institution. Christ gave to the apostles and their successors 
authority to guide the church, and they have made regula¬ 
tions to direct its life and work. These constitute the law 
of the church. But this church of law is at the same time 
a church of love. The love of Christ accompanies the 
church throughout its pilgrimage and constitutes it a com¬ 
munity of love. 

The spiritual character of the church is strongly empha¬ 
sized in the description of the nature of the church pro¬ 
posed by the Commission of Theologians in preparation 
for the Vatican Council which would almost certainly have 
been adopted if the council had not been suspended be¬ 
fore the completion of its work. This description is based 
on the conception of the church as the body of Christ. “ In 
order to describe the nature of the church, it is determined 
according to the true and catholic teaching that it is the 
mystical body of Christ.” Five reasons are given for this 
definition. First, it is biblical; second, it expresses the di¬ 
vine nature of the church; third, it shows that the church 
is not only external; fourth, only thus is the visible church 
rightly understood; and last, the spiritual view of the 
church needs to be revived in the souls of the faithful at the 
present time. 

Christ is not only the principle of the church’s external 
organization and visible unity, but also the life of its mem¬ 
bers; and in the church his life has its continued expres¬ 
sion. The church is the reality of the new creation, which 
has been given by the incarnation, and it is this in an onto¬ 
logical sense. There is in it and through it a true imma¬ 
nence of God in human life which expresses itself in a way 
perceivable by man. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 19 

The Catholic petra on which everything is based is the ob¬ 
jective really visible petra of the church, and therefore the order 
of supernature is independent of the ups and downs of human 
subjects. . . . The church is certainly the all in all of Christ, 
but it is this, not in the invisibility of the continued life of the 
glorified Lord in heaven — that is to say, eschatologically — but 
it is this as the foundation within time of the God-man who 
came within time, in its institutional gratia creata inhabitans, 
which is for it the opus operatum of the successio apostolica, 
based on the rock of Peter; and it is this not in a passive but in 
an active way, through the activity of the institutional unity of 
divine and human law in its life. 16 

This inhabitatio implies that the church is above all 
a church of the sacrament. “ Per sacramenta omnis vera 
justitia vel incipit vel coepta augetur vel amissa re- 
paratur.” 17 

The Roman Catholic Church alone possesses the four 
marks indicated in the creed. The church is one. This 
implies that its form of government is monarchical, for the 
papacy is the principle of unity. It is holy, because it is 
the continuation of the life of Christ, because it represents 
God’s kingdom on earth, because its teaching, its priestly 
and pastoral ministry, mediate the truth, grace and love of 
Christ, and because the members of the church are mem¬ 
bers of the body of Christ. It is also catholic or universal, 
not merely in principle but also in actuality. Finally, it 
is apostolic. All ecclesiastical authority is derived from the 
apostles, who have transmitted their office to their lawful 
successors, and were themselves appointed by Jesus 
Christ. 18 

Since the Roman Catholic Church considers that “ all 

16 Erich Przywara, S.J., “Das katholische Kirchenprinzip,” Zwischen 
den Zeiten, 1929. 

17 Concilium Tridentinum. 

is Ludwig Rosters, Die Kirche unseres Glaubens. 


20 The Church and Its Function in Society 

other confessions have separated themselves from the Ro¬ 
man Church, which was founded directly by Christ,** it 
holds that “ Rome cannot go to them; it is for them to re¬ 
turn to the Roman Church.” 19 On the other hand, 
“ everyone who has received baptism bel ongs s omehow to 
the pope ” and to the church, 20 and thus Christians of other 
confessions, “though far from the visible center, have a 
special claim on our love,” and may be considered as broth- 
ersjiiJ^hKist. In Roman Catholic theology this idea is 
sometimes elaborated in the form of a distinction between 
the body a nd the soul of the church (the latter being visi¬ 
ble only_^‘ to some extent ”), or in the form of a distinction 
Between explicit and implicit membership of the church. 
T he baptized C hristian who is of good faith and who does 
not consciously and arbitrarily oppose the truth of the 
church may “ belong ” to the church. At the same time, 
there are those in the membership of the church who do 
not really “ belong ” to it. In this sense, and in this sense 
only, it can be said that the eternal church of Christ and 
the visible institution are not fully identical with each 
other. 

The task of the church is to carry forward the work of the 
Redeemer. The church therefore seeks progressively to 
permeate both individuals and society with its supernatu¬ 
ral powers. According to the teaching of St. Thomas 
Aquinas, the church recognizes the polarity of man as a 
creature with certain natural powers, and one also touched 
by and elevated to certain supernatural realities. Baron 
von Hiigel defines this position as follows: 

The leading categories are no more sin and redemption, but 
nature and supernature. . . . The centrally natural life forms 
and finds its specific complex in the state; the centrally super- 

19 Statement concerning the Lausanne Conference, made in 1919. 

20 Letter of Pope Pius IX to Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1873. 












Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 21 

natural life has its specific expression and means in the church. 
The state is here recognized as being essentially ethical, al¬ 
though ethical in an elementary, homely, give-and-take, calcu¬ 
lating and self-conscious way; and the church has not to infuse 
this morality into the state, but has only to aid in awakening it 
there as a morality already and always latent in the state as 
such. The church has, roughly speaking, to begin where the 
state leaves off; and its ethics are of a transcending, abiding, 
self-oblivious, God-seeking and God-finding order, the whole 
a gift from the God of grace. 21 

Or, in the words of the encyclical Immortale Dei: “ The 
Almighty has appointed the charge of the human race be¬ 
tween two powers, the ecclesiastical and civil, the one being 
set over divine, the other over human things.” The church 
recognizes the authority of the state in its own legitimate 
sphere, but it cannot remain indifferent to the import of 
the laws enacted by the state, since God has assigned to the 
church the duty, not only of resisting actions of the state 
which run counter to religion, but also of making “ a strong 
endeavor that the power of the gospel may pervade the laws 
and institutions of the nations.” It must be reckoned 
among the duties of Christians that “ they allow themselves 
to be ruled and directed by the authority and leadership 
of bishops, and above all of the apostolic see. . . . Both 
what we are bound to believe and what we are obliged to 
do are laid down by the church using her divine right.” 

3. THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH 

While the Roman Catholic Church is to a very large ex¬ 
tent an institutional and legal body, the^Orthodox Church 
is not in the first place an institution but a worshiping 
community and a life in Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. 
Orthodoxy shares with Roman Catholicism the acceptance 
of tradition as an organ of divine revelation; but it means 

21 Friedrich von Hugel, The German Soul, 1916. 









22 The Church and Its Function in Society 

by tradition “ the truths which came down from our 
Lord and the apostles through the fathers, which are con¬ 
fessed unanimously and continuously in the undivided 
church 22 and since it has no continuously functioning 
agency for the interpretation of tradition, it does not pre¬ 
sent its doctrine in the form of a closed and detailed system. 

It is therefore not always easy to describe the Eastern 
Orthodox position concerning matters which were not de¬ 
fined authoritatively by the ecumenical councils of the 
early centuries. The conception of the church is a case in 
point. Let us first describe the area of broad agreement. 

The Eastern Orthodox view of the church is inseparably 
bound up with the doctrine expressed in the well known 
phrase of Athanasius that “ Christ became man in order 
that we might become divine.” The church may t herefore 
b e descr jh&cLas “ heaven on earth .” An oft repeated phrase 
in the liturgy is, “ As we stand in the house of thy glory, it is 
as though we stood in heaven itself.” Or, in the words of 
Professor Florovsky: 

The objective side [of the church] is the uninterrupted sacra¬ 
mental succession, the continuity of the hierarchy. . . . The 
subjective side is loyalty to the apostolic tradition; a life spent 
according to this tradition, as in a living realm of truth. . . . 
The catholic nature of the church is seen most vividly in the 
fact that the experience of the church belongs to all times. In 
the life and existence of the church time is mysteriously over¬ 
come and mastered; time, so to speak, stands still. . . . The 
church is the living image of eternity within time. 23 

The church is the mystical and sacramental unity of all 
believers, past, present and future, with one another and 
with the only Head of the church, Jesus Christ. The 

22 Report of the Joint Doctrinal Commission, 1932. This commission 
was appointed by the ecumenical patriarch and the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury. 

23 In The Church of God, 1934. 





Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 23 

bishops are successors of the apostles; and this fact consti¬ 
tutes the apostolic character of the church; for thus the 
church “ preserves teaching and discipleship without 
change and without interruption as gifts of the Holy Spirit 
through holy ordination.” The church as the body in 
which Christ is eternally present is infallible. “ Christ, 
the Head of the church which is his body, is its life-giver 
and its leader, so that it is impossible for it to fall into er¬ 
ror; for he is the truth itself. . . . An individual bishop 
or a particular local church may err, but the church as a 
whole is infallible.” 24 

That the hierarchy has spiritual and pastoral authority 
is general Orthodox doctrine. But there are various con¬ 
ceptions of the character and limits of that authority. One 
view, which appeals to statements of Orthodox synods and 
official catechisms, maintains that the hierarchy has a spe¬ 
cial authority in matters of doctrine and that this authority 
is not derived from the consensus of the faithful. Another 
view, which was formulated by Khomiakov in the nine¬ 
teenth century, but which claims to be an explanation of 
what the Orthodox Church has actually been in its history, 
holds that the Eastern Church does not recognize any for¬ 
mal, external or juridical authority, because the church 
itself, and not any part of it, is infallible. It believes that 
the “ guardian of piety is the body of the church, that is, 
the people itself,” 25 and that dogmatic utterances of coun¬ 
cils and synods “ have their significance, not in the fact that 
they possess an infallible authority in matters of faith 
(which they do not possess), but in the fact that they are 
means for the articulation and expression of the conscious¬ 
ness of the church.” 26 This consciousness of the whole 

24 Chrysostomos, Archbishop of Athens, at the Lausanne Conference. 

25 Letter of the Orthodox patriarchs to Pope Pius IX. 

26 Bulgakov, quoted by Heiler in Uvkivche und Ostkivche , 1937 * 


24 The Church and Its Function in Society 

church, expressed through the unity of its members (in 
Russian, their sobornost) , is thus the true criterion of 
truth and has absolute authority. It expresses itself not 
only in the doctrine but above all in the liturgy of the 
church. It is obvious that this conception stands in oppo¬ 
sition to the Roman Catholic conception which, according 
to the Vatican council, ascribes to dogmatic decisions of the 
pope an authority which resides in themselves and not in 
the consensus of the faithful ( ex sese, non autem ex con¬ 
sensu ecclesiae) . On the other hand, it is also different 
from the Reformation position, according to which the 
final authority is not the church but the Holy Scriptures. 
The sobornost theology has not been formulated explicitly 
and accepted by the church as a whole, and represents 
therefore a theologoumenon rather than an official po¬ 
sition. 27 

The attitude of the Orthodox Church toward other 
churches is characterized by a combination of two convic¬ 
tions. On the one hand, the Orthodox Church is the true 
church, the one holy catholic and apostolic church which 
is confessed in the creed. On the other hand, it recognizes 
other churches as real though imperfect parts of the body 
of Christ. Thus the Orthodox delegates at the Lausanne 
Conference on faith and order declared that no reunion 
could be achieved except on the basis of the common faith 
of the undivided church of the seven ecumenical councils. 
But at the same time the ecumenical patriarch, in his en¬ 
cyclical of 1920, proposed closer intercourse among the sev¬ 
eral Christian churches, an intercourse “ which is not pre¬ 
vented by the doctrinal differences existing between 
them and the Orthodox churches cooperate fully with 
the different ecumenical movements. Sacramental unity 

27 The Metropolitan of Thyateira in Report of the Joint Doctrinal 
Commission. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 25 

can be realized only on the basis of dogmatic agreement, 
but collaboration in common Christian tasks is possible in 
the meantime. 

In its attitude toward the world the Orthodox Church 
thinks in terms of penetrating this world from within 
rather than in terms of changing it outwardly. This con¬ 
ception is often expressed by the term “ churchification,” 
or transfiguration of the world, which means that the 
supernatural life of the church should permeate the whole 
life of society. In view of its strong belief in the cosmic 
character of the revelation, which enables it to see symbols 
of Christian truth in many aspects of nature and society, 
the Orthodox Church does not draw a sharp distinction be¬ 
tween the sacred and the secular. 

4. THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION 

The Anglican communion harbors within itself the most 
widely differing doctrines of the church. Its comprehen¬ 
siveness in this respect is one of its distinguishing charac¬ 
teristics. It claims to be both Catholic and Protestant. 
The Lambeth Conference of 1930 stated: 

Our special character and, as we believe, our peculiar con¬ 
tribution to the universal church, arises from the fact that, ow¬ 
ing to historic circumstances, we have been enabled to combine 
in our one fellowship the traditional faith and order of the 
Catholic Church with that immediacy of approach to God 
through Christ to which the Evangelical churches especially 
bear witness, and freedom of intellectual inquiry, whereby the 
correlation of the Christian revelation and advancing knowl¬ 
edge is constantly affected. 

Or in the words of the Archbishop of York: 

We can hold out a hand both to the ancient churches of the 
east and to Rome on the one side, and to all those who with us 
are heirs of the Reformation on the other; and in that we have 


26 The Church and Its Function in Society 

a position unique in Christendom, the full value of which can 
only be realized for the universal church so far as we are true 
to both sides of our own tradition. 28 

The Anglican communion often appears to the outsider 
a house divided against itself, for it contains different 
parties or groupings whose fundamental convictions seem 
to contradict one another. But as the Bishop of Chichester 
has pointed out in his “ Brief Sketch of the Church of 
England 

Every party is, as such, a minority, and all the parties together 
are still a minority of church members. The great multitude 
of those who belong to the Church of England though helped 
by all are tied by none. And all are bound together by the 
fourfold cord: the episcopate, the Bible, the Prayer Book and 
the crown, that is, in the language of an earlier day, the Chris¬ 
tian prince. 

With the exception of the reference to the crown, these 
words are equally applicable to the other churches of the 
Anglican communion. 

There are in the Anglican communion representatives 
of several of the conceptions of the church described in 
other sections of this chapter. But there is at the same time 
a conception which is truly characteristic of Anglicanism 
and which constitutes, as it were, its main line of develop¬ 
ment. This conception has been variously described as the 
theory of comprehensiveness or the via media. It is a 
catholic ideal in that it conceives of the body of Christ as 
consisting of very different types of members, each useful 
in its own way and none to be glorified at the expense of 
the others. It is also catholic in the more substantial sense 
of the word, in that it receives its inspiration from a faith 
in the continuous and common tradition of the living 
Christian church. 


28 Essays in Christian Politics. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 27 

The Lambeth Conference of 1930 approved the follow¬ 
ing statement of the nature and status of the Anglican 
communion: 

The Anglican communion is a fellowship, within the one 
holy catholic and apostolic church, of those duly constituted 
dioceses, provinces or regional churches in communion with 
the See of Canterbury, which have the following characteris¬ 
tics in common: 

(a) They uphold and propagate the catholic and apostolic 
faith and order as they are generally set forth in the Book of 
Common Prayer as authorized in their several churches; 

(b) They are particular or national churches, and as such 
promote within each of their territories a national expression 
of Christian faith, life and worship; and 

(c) They are bound together not by a central legislative and 
executive authority, but by mutual loyalty sustained through 
the common counsel of the bishops in conference. 

“ Protestant ” in its insistence on the truth that “ Holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation,” 
“ Catholic ” in its estimate of tradition and of the main 
guardian of tradition which is the episcopate, it looks 
upon the church as “ the organ through which the Spirit 
now finds expression in the world,” 29 or, as many younger 
Anglicans would put it, as “an extension of the incarna¬ 
tion.” The visible church has therefore definite spiritual 
authority. “ By the guidance of the Holy Spirit residing 
in the church ” Holy Scripture is “ completed, explained, 
interpreted and understood,” 80 and this authority resides 
above all in the liturgical tradition. 31 For the same reason 
it attaches very great importance to the order of the church, 
for “ it is part of the life that is always going on,” and par¬ 
ticularly to the episcopate, for it is “ the natural source 

29 Lambeth encyclical, 1930. 

30 Joint Doctrinal report. 

si The Prayer Book is more authoritative than the Thirty-nine Articles; 
see Joint Doctrinal report. 


28 The Church and Its Function in Society 

[on earth] of teaching, discipline and ministration of the 
sacraments.” 32 

But if the church is already catholic in principle, it must 
work for the realization of that full catholicity which 
means nothing less than the reunion of all Christendom 
into one visible and united body. A purely spiritual and 
invisible unity or a purely “ intensive ” catholicity is not 
enough. Unity must find expression in common faith and 
order, and both terms are equally important. 

Thus it is no mere accident that the Anglican churches 
are more active than any others in the movement ior the 
reunion of the Christian churches. Their visible unity is 
an essential element in their whole conception of the 
church, and the conception of the church is at the same 
time influenced by the desire for unity. They stand in the 
center of a process of conversations and negotiations with 
churches as different from one another as the Eastern Or¬ 
thodox Church and the several Protestant churches. And 
they are hopeful that out of this process there may emerge 
some day a world-wide church which will contain both the 
Catholic and the Protestant traditions, just as today the 
Anglican Church “ includes inevitably the Scriptures and 
the salvation of the individual; as inevitably the order and 
the sacramental life of the body of Christ, and the freedom 
of thought wherewith Christ has made men free.” 33 

In its attitude toward the world, the Anglican Church 
contains all shades of opinion, ranging from extreme pie¬ 
tism and conservatism to social activism and Christian 
communism. But here again the main guiding principle 
is not to be identified with any extreme position. For the 
typically Anglican attitude toward the world is neither to 
accept the world as it is nor to revolutionize it from top 

32 S. C. Carpenter in Towards Reunion, 1934. 

33 A. M. Ramsey, The Gospel and the Catholic Church, 1936. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 29 

to bottom, but rather to hold that the world is gradually 
to be permeated by the Spirit of God. No sharp distinc¬ 
tions are drawn between the transcendent and the imma¬ 
nent, but neither are the two identified. Thus the 
Lambeth encyclical of 1930 speaks of the “ perfecting of hu¬ 
manity in Jesus Christ ” as “ the attainment of the purpose 
of the whole cosmic process through the agency of the im¬ 
manent Logos or creative thought of God.” God is “ the 
Great Educator ” who changes human nature. But side 
by side with this optimistic evolutionary conception there 
is also another more critical view which finds nourishment 
in the more eschatological piety of the Prayer Book. The 
Anglican Church seems sometimes a church which merely 
consecrates the world, but it can also turn against the world 
in order to proclaim a message of judgment. It is a catho¬ 
lic church with Protestant elements, and it is a priestly 
church with prophetic elements. 

5. THE LUTHERAN CHURCHES- 

The early formulations of Lutheran doctrine contain 
strong statements concerning the necessity of the church 
for salvation. According to the Greater Catechism the 
church is “ the mother which through the Word of God 
gives birth to every Christian and supports him.” 

The Lutheran conception of the church finds its classic 
expression in the Augsburg Confession, wherein the 
church is defined as “ the congregation of saints in which 
the gospel is purely taught and the sacraments rightly 
administered.” This conception implies that the Word 
and the sacraments actually constitute the church and that 
they are always efficacious, either for salvation or for judg¬ 
ment. The Word of God is given in Holy Scripture, but 
it must nevertheless be preached. Holy Scripture is there¬ 
fore the source of the church’s witness, its basis, and the 


The Church and Its Function in Society 


30 

“ unique rule and norm according to which all doctrine 
and all teachers should be estimated and judged.” 34 

Tradition has its value, but it should not be coordinated 
with Holy Scripture. For tradition is merely human, and 
to accept it as equal in authority to Scripture leads to a 
confusion between that which is of God and that which is 
of men. Tire church is not to govern Scripture, but to be 
obedient t o it . 

The two basic marks of the church, which are at the 
same time the creative powers which build the church, 
are the Word and the sacraments. The Lutheran Church 
has no official doctrinal position concerning matters of 
church order. There is one indispensable ministry: the 
ministry of the Word of God and the sacraments, which 
are divinely instituted, but the constitution and the disci¬ 
pline of the church are considered matters of secondary 
importance which should not be confused with matters of 
faith. Indeed, it is held that if matters of order are put on 
the same level as the Word and the sacraments, the gospel 
is transformed into a new law, and the preaching of the 
gospel, the heart of which is the message of justification 
and the remission of sins, is no longer “ pure.” It is for 
this reason that there is great diversity among the Lutheran 
churches as regards their constitution, and that those Lu¬ 
theran churches which are in possession of “ valid orders ” 
(in the Catholic sense of that term) do not attach any doc¬ 
trinal significance to that fact, and do not consider the 
episcopacy one of the indispensable marks of the church. 

The church as the community of believers is hidden 
in so far as the members of Christ are known only to God. 
It is, however, not an invisible or a merely ideal reality, 
for the faithful can recognize it by the presence of the 
means of grace. There is room for a distinction between 
34 Formula of Concord. 



Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 31 

an ecclesia proprie dicta (the “ inner Christendom ”), and 
an ecclesia late dicta (the “ outer Christendom ”), but this 
distinction does not coincide with Calvin’s distinction be¬ 
tween the visible and the invisible church, for the means 
of grace are necessarily efficacious and by them the church 
is recognizable for faith as an actuality in the world. In 
later Lutheran theology, and today in several Lutheran 
churches, the distinction between the visible and the invisi¬ 
ble church is, however, used to explain the twofold nature 
of the church as a divine and a human reality. 35 Thus the 
Church of Sweden states: 

This church is from one point of view an inward fellowship 
of faith and love, which in the unity of the Spirit binds together 
all children of God in heaven and on earth, with God and with 
one another. From the other point of view, the same church 
is a community, organized in changing outward forms, for the 
ministration of the means of grace by which Christ, through 
the Holy Spirit, reconciles men to God, kindling faith, grant¬ 
ing the remission of sins, and bringing their wills into subjec¬ 
tion to his sovereignty so as to unite them in love and service 
of God and men, and to make them Christ’s witnesses and fel¬ 
low workers in the extension of God’s rule on earth until his 
kingdom come in glory. 36 

With regard to its ecumenical attitude the Lutheran 
Church distinguishes sharply between matters of faith and 
matters of order. The Augsburg Confession states: “ For 
the church’s true unity it is sufficient to be one in the 
preaching of the Word and in the administration of the 
sacraments. But it is not necessary that everywhere there 
be the same human traditions or such forms and cere¬ 
monies as are appointed by men.” The Lutheran Church 
is therefore willing to acknowledge all church forms as 

35 See, e.g., the answers of the various Lutheran churches to the report 
of the Lausanne Conference in Convictions. 

36 ibid. 


32 The Church and Its Function in Society 

valid, and conceives of the process toward reunion as the 
endeavor “ to fill those forms that already exist with a clear, 
rich, evangelical Christian content, and to remove any¬ 
thing through which the gospel itself might be overshad¬ 
owed, so that in this way an approach may be possible be¬ 
tween the churches also in their outward forms.” 37 

On the other hand, the confessions of faith have a greater 
place in the Lutheran churches than in most other Protes¬ 
tant churches. Thus the Formula of Concord claims to be 
a “ solid testimony, not only to those who live now, but 
also to all posterity.” In matters of faith, therefore, the 
Lutheran churches often take an uncompromising stand 
against any attempts to arrive at doctrinal agreement at the 
expense of their main articles of faith. Fundamentally all 
Lutheran churches and theological schools agree that the 
content of the confessions needs to be continually tested 
by the Word of God as the unique rule and norm of faith. 
But there is difference of opinion as to whether every single 
article, if measured by this norm, should be maintained, or 
whether the present understanding of the Word of God 
demands new formulations. There is, however, one article 
which is articulum stands aut cadentis ecclesiae, namely, 
justification by faith alone. 

The Lutheran Church recognizes that the true church 
is also present in other particular churches. Ubi Christus, 
ibi ecclesia. Wherever, in any of the other churches, Christ 
is present, there the church is. Lutherans believe that 
“ those people are the true church who all over the world, 
from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, 
believe truly in Christ, who have the one gospel, one Christ, 
one baptism, and one sacrament, who are governed by one 
Holy Spirit, even if they have different ceremonies.” 38 

37 Church of Norway in Convictions. 

38 Apologia of the Augsburg Confession. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 33 

Lutheran social ethics are based on the doctrine of the 
divine orders, orders which God has ordained to conserve 
the world until the last judgment. These orders include 
the orders of nature, of creation, of family and work, and 
of government. The gospel does not do away with these 
orders. 

The gospel teaches not an outward, temporal, but an inward, 
eternal attitude and righteousness of the heart, and does not 
overthrow worldly authority, civil force and order of marriage, 
but rather desires that all these be accepted as the true order, 
and that everyone show Christian love and good works accord¬ 
ing to his own calling and vocation. 39 

It is, however, a condition of obedience that the govern¬ 
ment should be a legitimate government which fulfills its 
duty to protect justice and to keep the peace. If these 
qualifications are wanting, government becomes tyranny 
and will be judged by God. The church can refuse obedi¬ 
ence if it is asked to condone or to commit sin. 

In addition to the calling of the father and of the gov¬ 
ernment there is the calling of the ministry. Its task is the 
preaching of the Word which includes the usus legis politi- 
cus — that is to say, the teaching concerning the orders and 
commandments of God relating to society. The realms of 
the church and of the government should not be con¬ 
fused, 40 because the gospel and the law should not be con¬ 
fused. The reign of Christ is hidden until the coming of 
the kingdom of God (tectum cruce ). It is present where 
the Word and the sacrament are present, but it can be rec¬ 
ognized only by faith. 

Thus in original Lutheranism, and in much of present- 
day Lutheranism, there is a strong eschatological strain 

39 Augsburg Confession. 

40 “Non igitur commiscendae sunt potestates ecclesiastica et civilis.” 
Augsburg Confession. 


34 The Church and Its Function in Society 

which tends to a realistic acceptance of the main orders 
of this world as the inevitable form of human relationships 
in a sinful world, but which does not exclude a very high 
social morality on the part of individuals and a conscious¬ 
ness of the duty of the church to demand that the authori¬ 
ties obey the will of God. On the other hand, it should not 
be forgotten that there have been many Lutheran church¬ 
men and theologians who, while accepting the full tension 
between the law of love and social realities, have been 
pioneers in social ethics and action. Lutheranism remains, 
however, opposed to all forms of Christian activism which 
would apply the law of love directly to politics or social 
life. For it considers that such “ spiritualism ” fails to 
recognize the true calling of the state and the nature of our 
present sinful human situation. 

6. THE REFORMED CHURCHES 

^ The group of churches which owe their origin to the 
Reformation in Switzerland and France have never had 
a common confession of faith such as the Lutheran 
churches possess in the Augsburg Confession. This is 
partly due to the fact that the “ Reformed ” Reformation 
has several different sources and partly to the fact that the 
confessions of faith, according to Reformed doctrine, have 
a concrete and historical rather than a general and perma¬ 
nent significance. They are provisional statements of the 
teachings of a given church, statements which can and 
should be tested again and again in the light of God’s pres¬ 
ent and actual Word spoken through Holy Scripture, which 
alone is the “ infallible rule,” and to which “ no human 
documents, however holy they may have been, should be 
compared.” 41 

Today some Reformed churches have no confession at 

4 i Confessio belgica, art. vn. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 35 

all, some have confessions drawn up more or less recently, 
and some hold to the confessions of the sixteenth and seven¬ 
teenth centuries. 

There are, however, a number of points concerning the 
nature of the church in which the Reformed churches, 
in so far as they have not broken completely with their 
historical origins, are still at one. These points are found 
in practically all the historic Reformed confessions of faith, 
and are being taught today by Reformed theologians in 
many different countries. 

It has been said that “ among the Reformed, dogmatics 
is a * locus ’ in the church; while among the Lutherans, the 
church is a ‘ locus' in dogmatics.” 42 This statement is 
somewhat too clever to be true, but it points to an impor¬ 
tant difference between the two confessions. In Calvinist 
theology, the Soli Deo gloria leads to a coordination of 
faith and obedience, of justification and sanctification, 
which differs from the exclusive emphasis on justification 
by faith in Lutheranism. Calvinism follows Lutheranism 
in its emphasis on the objective, “ given ” character of 
the church as the body which offers God’s Word and God’s 
grace to men; but it qualifies the Lutheran conception by 
emphasizing strongly that the church is also the holy com¬ 
munity which in its life must demonstrate that “ God has 
created the world in order that it might be the theater of 
his glory.” 43 

The characteristics of the Reformed conception of the 
church are therefore the following: 

In the first place, the Reformed faith gives a very central 
place to the church. “ Whosoever departs from the church 
denies God and Jesus Christ,” says Calvin. 44 

42 Hundeshagen. Quoted by Ernst Troeltsch in Soziallehren, 1919. 

43 Calvin. 

44 institutes IV, 1, 10. 


36 The Church and Its Function in Society 

In the second place, the Reformed churches distinguish 
between the visible and the invisible church, but this dis¬ 
tinction does not imply a separation between these two as¬ 
pects of the church. “ As it is necessary that we should 
believe in the church, invisible to us and known to one 
only, God; so it has been commanded that we should honor 
the visible church and remain in communion with it.” 
And again, “ Everywhere that we see the Word of God 
purely preached and listened to, and the sacraments ad¬ 
ministered according to the institution of Christ, we must 
never doubt that there is the church.” 45 Calvinism, while 
never taking it for granted that a given church as such is 
in its own right and necessarily the church of God, or that 
the church carries any authority within itself, believes 
nevertheless that in faith — that is, in the attitude of con¬ 
stant willingness to receive God’s grace anew — men may 
be assured that they are within the church of God. 

The church is visible in the sense that it has character¬ 
istics which can be recognized in faith (the preaching of 
the Word and the sacraments), but it is invisible in that it 
is the “ society of those whom God has chosen to save, which 
cannot fully be perceived by our eyes.” 46 The church de¬ 
pends therefore at every moment upon God’s present grace. 
It lives, not by itself, but by the strength of the promises of 
God. The church does not “ possess ” the truth, but re¬ 
ceives the truth of God again and again. 

In the third place, the Reformed churches take a more 
critical or, as its critics would say, a more iconoclastic atti¬ 
tude toward tradition. In view of their mistrust of human 
institutions the Reformed churches attach no value to the 
temporal continuity of ecclesiastical tradition, and reject 
not only what is against Scripture but also what seems to 
them to be human additions to Scripture. 

45 Institutes IV, 1, 7 and 9. 46 Geneva Catechism of 1545. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 37 

In the fourth place, the Reformed conception of the na¬ 
ture of the church includes a conviction with regard to 
church discipline and the order of the church (at this point 
the characteristic Calvinistic emphasis on the church as a 
Christian community finds expression). Though it can¬ 
not be said that church discipline has been considered by 
all Reformed confessions and teachers as a nota ecclesiae, 
it has generally been regarded as an indispensable charac¬ 
teristic of the true church . 47 At the same time, several — 
not all — Reformed confessions speak of the Presbyterian 
order as the “ order which our Lord Jesus Christ has es¬ 
tablished,” 48 and thus consider the question of the 
church’s constitution a point of doctrine rather than a mat¬ 
ter of expediency. Today several churches of the Re¬ 
formed tradition would no longer hold to this article of 
faith. The Church of Scotland holds the Presbyterian 
polity to be “ agreeable to the Word of God ” without 
claiming for it a de jure or exclusive divine authority. 
The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. holds that its 
order is expedient and agreeable to Scripture, but adds: 
“ We embrace, in the spirit of charity, those Christians who 
differ from us, in opinion and practice, on these subjects.” 
And the Presbyterian Church of Wales goes much further 
by saying: “ It [the assembly] does not believe that one par¬ 
ticular form of ministry is divinely instituted and is for 
that reason immutable.” 49 

In their attitude toward other churches the Reformed 
churches differ very considerably. The common convic¬ 
tion is that “ the visible church, which is also catholic 
or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation 
as before under the law), consists of all those throughout 
the world that profess the true religion, together with their 

47 Thus, e.g., Confessio belgica, 29. 

48 Confessio gallicana, 29. 49 Convictions. 


38 The Church and Its Function in Society 

children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary 
possibility of salvation.” 50 But some Reformed churches 
would interpret “ the true religion ” as the full faith, ex¬ 
pressed in the historic confessions, while others are ready 
to interpret these words in an extremely broad manner. 
The Reformed churches do not insist on agreement in 
“ outward rites and ceremonies,” but rather in “ the truth 
and unity of the catholic faith ”; 51 but while some go to the 
extreme of refusing all collaboration with other churches 
who do not define the Christian faith in exactly the same 
manner as they themselves do, others go to the opposite ex¬ 
treme of a latitudinarian attitude in matters of doctrine. 

The attitude of the Reformed churches toward the world 
follows from their conception of the church. Since the 
church is concerned not only with the proclamation of 
the message of grace, but also with the response given to 
that message in the life of the faithful, it gives guidance in 
matters of public as well as of private life. That attitude 
does not imply that the church takes the place of the state; 
for the state has its own God-given task. (Among the early 
Calvinists this task was conceived as “ repressing the sins 
committed, not only against the second table of the com¬ 
mandments of God, but also against the first,” 62 but today 
few Reformed churches hold that the state should inter¬ 
vene in spiritual and religious matters.) The church “ is 
subject to no civil authority,” 53 and it has the right and the 
duty to give direction to its members through its discipline 
in all matters of morality, private and public, and to de¬ 
mand that the state obey the law of God. Since the law of 
God is given not only to bring men to repentance but also 
to restrain the wicked and — tertius usus legis — to reveal 


60 Westminster Confession, 
si Second Helvetic Confession. 


62 Confessio gallicana. 

63 Church of Scotland Act. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 39 

the will of God to believers, the Reformed church seeks in 
the Bible the principles according to which the social and 
political order should be organized. Thus the Reformed 
faith has always had a strong sense of its mission in public 
life, and has in many countries become a force of social and 
political renewal and transformation. It does not believe, 
however, that any particular human society can ever corre¬ 
spond to the kingdom of God, for it is aware of the eschato¬ 
logical boundary to all human activity. “Though Jesus 
Christ offers us in the gospel a true and real fullness of all 
spiritual gifts, the enjoyment of these is still hidden under 
the guardianship and the seal of hope.” 64 It must, how¬ 
ever, be added that in modern times the Reformed 
churches have often forgotten this warning. 

7. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN PROTESTANTISM 

Athough we find several of the largest single groups of 
Christians among those Protestant churches which can be 
classified neither as Lutheran nor as Reformed, we will 
take them together, partly because of lack of space, and 
partly because their various conceptions of the church are 
related to one another. 

The first main group is that of the Congregational 
churches. These belong in one sense to the Reformed 
family, for their theology is largely based on Calvinism. 
But they have also been influenced by Anabaptism, and 
thus they lay greater stress upon the Christian experience 
of the individual believer. In England Congregationalism 
has stood for the conception of the “ gathered church ” in 
distinction from the national churchmanship of the 
Church of England. A “ gathered church ” is a company 
of definitely committed believers. 

Thus only local associations of experiential Christians 

54 Institutes II, 9, 3. 


40 The Church and Its Function in Society 

are visible churches, and of each of these Christ is the im¬ 
mediate and only Head. The local church is therefore a 
completely self-governing body. “ Such organization is 
preferable, as it allows the church in each place and time to 
follow most freely the guidance of the Spirit.” 65 

Congregationalism was “ independent ” in England but 
“ established ” in New England, a fact which shows that it 
did not break completely with the old notion of the all- 
embracing church. 

The Baptists, however, went further in the more subjec¬ 
tive direction. The Baptist community stands partly in 
the Calvinist tradition, but it was also influenced by the 
Anabaptist sects on the continent of Europe, and holds a 
conception of the church which takes the Christian experi¬ 
ence of the individual believer as its basis. For this reason 
baptism is restricted to persons who make an individual 
and personal surrender to Christ. The immediacy and 
inward character of the relation between God and man is 
emphasized; and the church can never bring men into 
ordinary communion with God without personal faith. 
Some Baptists would say that the church, while “ essential 
for the perfection of Christian character, is not necessary to 
establish communion between God and men 66 but 
others would qualify this statement. 

In view of their emphasis on religion as a personal rela¬ 
tionship between God and the soul the Baptists reject state 
control. They have been protagonists of religious toler¬ 
ance or, as Roger Williams called it, “ soul liberty.” It 
should be noted that a very similar conception of the 
church is held by the Disciples of Christ. 

The most consistently “ inward ” conception of the 
church is certainly that of the Quakers. Their belief in 

55 Congregational Union of England and Wales in Convictions. 

56 Dr. Ashworth at the Lausanne Conference. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 41 

the “ inner light ” has led them to reject all external forms 
of worship, particularly the sacraments and the ordained 
ministry. “ The claims of the inward light demanded a 
separation from all that was outward in religion, and left 
no place for a man-made ministry or for reliance on the 
external features of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” 57 
Their conception of the church is therefore that it is “ the 
fellowship of all sincere disciples of Jesus united in the life 
and experience of his continued presence with them as the 
Holy Spirit — united for the primary end of helping to 
establish his kingdom in the world and, incidentally, for 
nourishing his life in their souls by corporate worship.” 58 
All tradition, including the Bible itself, should be made 
subordinate to the continuing life of the Spirit which men 
come to know through their “ inward teacher.” 

The conception of the church held by Methodism is diffi¬ 
cult to describe, because Methodism has grown up as a re¬ 
vival movement and because its standard of faith consists 
not in confessions but in sermons and commentaries. The 
statement on doctrine of the Methodist Church in England 
which was drawn up in 1932 at the time of the union of 
three Methodist churches declares “ that in the Providence 
of God, Methodism was raised up to spread spiritual holi¬ 
ness through the land by the proclamation of the Evangel¬ 
ical faith,” that “ the Methodist Church holds the doctrine 
of the priesthood of all believers, and consequently believes 
that no priesthood exists which belongs exclusively to a 
particular order or class of men,” and that “ for the sake of 
church order, and not because of any priestly virtue in¬ 
herent in the office, the ministers of the church are set apart 
by ordination to the ministry of the Word and sacraments.” 
The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States 

67 Beginnings of Quakerism. 

58 Society of Friends in Great Britain in Convictions. 


42 The Church and Its Function in Society 

stated in 1924 that “the historic notes of emphasis in 
Methodism have been on conversion, on entire sanctifica¬ 
tion, on the capture of the child from earliest infancy for 
the kingdom of heaven, on the right of way of the spiritual 
interests over all ecclesiastical organization.” Thus Meth¬ 
odism conceives of the church as the fellowship growing 
out of the Christian experience of individuals. At the 
same time the other note of the church as a God-given in¬ 
stitution is not lacking. The 1932 declaration says: “ The 
Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the 
Holy Catholic Church, which is the Body of Christ.” Thus 
the Methodist Church can be best described as “an attempt 
to combine institutionalism and individualism, stressing 
both the necessity of personal conversion and the impor¬ 
tance of the institution of the church.” 69 

It is typical of the denominations described in this sec¬ 
tion that in their attitude toward other churches they de¬ 
mand first of all genuine Christian experience, and second 
the largest possible liberty of interpretation of the meaning 
of creeds, sacraments and ministry, rather than uniformity 
of order or the adoption of the same confessions. This 
attitude is based on the conviction that the church is essen¬ 
tially a community of believers rather than a community of 
belief, that is, of corporate faith. In the language of 
Troeltsch, they are not so much churches as “ sects,” a 
point which does not mean that they are more “ sectarian ” 
than other Christian groups, but that the voluntary ele¬ 
ment in their structure is stronger than the institutional 
one. 

With regard to their attitude toward the world these four 
groups of churches have shared in the Calvinist tradition 
of active participation in social and public life. The 
Congregationalists have given shape to New England Puri- 

69 Cyril Richardson. 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 43 

tanism, which in turn has influenced the whole life of 
America. Their idea of the “ covenant ” is one of the 
roots of modern democracy. The Baptists have been par¬ 
ticularly influential through their stand for religious free¬ 
dom, and paved the way for the separation of church and 
state. The Quakers, though originally mainly a sect pro¬ 
testing against the ways of the world, have become pioneers 
in matters of social justice, and particularly in interna¬ 
tional understanding and pacifism. And the Methodists, 
who have always emphasized the moral claim in their 
evangelism, have more recently become very active in the 
realm of social justice. It is interesting to note that these 
four denominations have given the most cordial reception 
to that particular theology which is characterized by an 
active concern for the transformation of social institutions 
in accordance with what is believed to be God’s will, and 
by an evolutionary view of human history. This theology 
is to some extent implicit in their conception of the church, 
though it should be added that other modern trends of 
thought have contributed equally to its development. 

8. MODERNISM 

Although there are very few churches which would de¬ 
scribe themselves as modernist, it is necessary to mention 
the modernist conception of the church, because it has ad¬ 
vocates in many churches and also because it raises impor¬ 
tant issues which should be taken seriously in any discus¬ 
sion concerning the nature of the church. 

The modernist conception is “ modern ” only because 
it has recently become an important theological tendency 
within Christianity; but its origins go back to individual 
thinkers of several centuries ago. At the same time there 
exists a relation between the more subjective conceptions 
of the church formulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth 


44 The Church and Its Function in Society 

centuries, and the modernism of our day. For both em¬ 
phasize the experiential rather than the “ given ” charac¬ 
ter of faith. The main new element in modernism is, 
however, the attempt to adapt Christian truth to the find¬ 
ings of science and to the contemporary secular philoso¬ 
phies. In so doing the modernist movement is convinced 
that it can appeal to the historical Jesus and to the early 
church, and that its conception of the church is really a 
rediscovery of original Christianity. 

It would be unjust to describe the modernist conception 
of the church as the purely individualistic notion of an as¬ 
sociation of like-minded religious persons or, as it was once 
put in the House of Commons in England, “ a voluntary 
association for providing religious services on Sunday for 
that section of the population which chooses to take ad¬ 
vantage of them.” This notion is certainly widespread 
among the laity in many countries, but it has not been 
taught by the leading modernist theologians. Sometimes, 
however, more representative definitions of the church 
come very near to it. Thus the well known report. Re¬ 
thinking Missions, rejects the church “ as a kind of magical 
institution, which confers certain mysterious gifts and 
graces upon its members, and which becomes an ark of 
safety for those who through it hope to secure thereby their 
eternal salvation in another world than this,” in favor of 
the church “ as a spiritual fellowship and communion of 
those who have found a new spring of life and power by the 
impact of the Christian message, who are eager to join to¬ 
gether as a living growing body of believers through whom 
the ideals and the spirit of Christ can be transmitted and 
his principles of life promoted.” 

In the statements of the leading modernist theologians 
one finds, however, a stronger emphasis on the transcend¬ 
ent and purely religious values in the historic conception 


Various Doctrinal Conceptions of the Church 45 

of the church. A good example is an article by Ernst 
Troeltsch. 60 Troeltsch rejects the purely individual no¬ 
tion, because the elevating and saving power which comes 
from Jesus implies a pattern of life which is not produced 
by individuals, but which produces the individuals. Wor¬ 
ship is not the sum of the subjective emotions of the wor¬ 
shipers, but the common turning to that life which is 
represented by Christ. He observes that the conception of 
the church as a mere association of individuals fails to ap¬ 
preciate the centrality of grace in all Christian faith. To 
believe in the victory of the church means to believe that 
that religious and moral power which finds expression in 
the Christian community is one of the forces which are 
destined to be ultimately victorious. On the other hand, 
everything which has to do with the church as an institu¬ 
tion founded by Christ himself with a special ministry and 
guarantees, as an organization which canalizes the miracu¬ 
lous forces of the incarnation, should be given up, even in 
its more refined form of a supernatural institution which 
is confined to preaching. The community of the spirit of 
Christ is the highest and most inward power of personal 
religion, and in so far destined to participate in the victory 
of the good. And Troeltsch concludes that we cannot 
know whether it will hold that position alone to all eternity. 

The typical and important characteristics of this concep¬ 
tion are that it denies the claim of the historic churches 
that they are based on the absolutely and uniquely true 
revelation of God, and that it considers the church as one 
of the forces, though the highest, among the various spir¬ 
itual and cultural forces which are working in the same 
general direction of the ultimate good. Troeltsch states 
clearly that it might be better not to use the word 

6 o In the encyclopedia. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, first 
edition. 


46 The Church and Its Function in Society 

“ church ” for this conception, because that word is so defi¬ 
nitely linked to the classical idea of a body which represents 
the one and only way of salvation. Other modernists, how¬ 
ever, use the old expressions but give them a different con¬ 
notation. Thus Professor Raven writes that the church 

is the fellowship of those who live in Christ, and by him are 
incorporated into his body, that is, the church. No initiation 
except that of sharing in his sufferings can admit us to it; no 
sacrament save that of daily dying and rising again can sustain 
us in it; no priesthood but that of the Christ-possessed ministers 
to it; those that are led by the Spirit of God, be they Jew, Turk, 
infidel or heretic, are within its membership; all mankind be¬ 
long to it if having eyes they see, if their lives display the fruits 
of the Spirit, if they have love one toward another. 61 

It is evident that this conception is supremely tolerant 
in its ecumenical attitude so long as it does not meet with 
authoritative and, as modernists would say, intolerant 
claims. It is, however, an open question whether this con¬ 
ception does not lead logically to a conception of commu¬ 
nity which is interreligious rather than ecumenical. 

In its attitude toward the world modernism may take 
very different forms. In so far as it is bound up with indi¬ 
vidualism and liberalism, it may lead to a purely defensive 
attitude against those modern forces which would sub¬ 
ordinate the individual to the collectivity. In so far as it 
is bound up with moral idealism, it may lead to a social 
concern which sponsors various humanitarian causes. It 
is a fact that modernist Christians have often put their 
more orthodox brethren to shame by the leadership which 
they have given in Christian, social or international action. 

6 i Jesus and the Gospel of Love . 


II 


THE CHURCHES IN HISTORY 


he purpose of this chapter is not to give a bird’s-eye 



± view of church history, but rather to describe briefly 
the various forms of interaction between the churches and 
their historical environment. Such a description is neces¬ 
sary for the following reasons. 

In the first place, it is impossible to understand a church 
apart from its concrete setting. For a church is not only 
what it claims to be according to its doctrine, but also 
what it actually says and does (and does not say and do) 
in relation to its environment. To say this is not to deny 
that the church is more than a sociological grouping, but 
to affirm that the church, like its Master, takes human 
form, and that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. 

In the second place, there are a number of churches 
which underwent such profound changes when they were 
transplanted from one part of the world to another, or 
when they entered into a different historical era, that they 
should be understood in the light of their present position 
rather than in the light of their original confessions. This 
is true not only of the churches in the United States and 
of the younger churches, but also of several churches in 
Europe. 

In the third place, it is clear that the particular historical 
and geographical situation in which a church finds itself 
has a bearing on its attitude toward the critical problems 
put before Christians today. This is not said in order to 
encourage one to approach these problems from the histori¬ 
cal rather than from the theological angle. For it would be 


47 


48 The Church and Its Function in Society 

a disaster if we were to speak as representatives of our par¬ 
ticular cultural traditions rather than as Christians who are 
seeking to discover the eternal truth of God which is valid 
in all our different circumstances. But precisely in order 
to distinguish more sharply between that which is abiding 
and that which is transitory, that which belongs to the con¬ 
tent of faith and that which belongs to the changing pat¬ 
terns of history or sociology or geography, it is necessary 
to see clearly the particular situation in which each church 
finds itself. Unfortunately we can do no more than indi¬ 
cate in the briefest manner what particular circumstances 
the various churches have to face, and how their relation¬ 
ships with the world affect their thought about their mes¬ 
sage and mission. In order to condense the description as 
much as possible, it will be necessary to mention under 
each heading only a few of the typical problems which the 
churches must face in each particular area. 

1. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS 
ENVIRONMENT 

In describing the churches in history we shall have to 
use the geographical rather than the confessional principle 
of division; for the historical situations differ according to 
cultural areas. But we must make an exception for the 
Roman Catholic Church, for it is the only church which 
confronts the world as a whole rather than any particular 
part of it, and which has a centralized international organ 
for the spiritual, moral and legal direction of its adherents. 

A discussion of the relations between the Roman Catho¬ 
lic Church and its environment must take the medieval 
solution of that problem as its starting point. For the uni¬ 
fied culture of the period which found its climax in the 
thirteenth century remains the classical example of the 
synthesis between Catholic doctrine and civilization in gen- 


The Churches in History 


49 

eral. The church created a social order; but in the process 
the church’s conception of itself, and of its task in the 
world, was itself profoundly modified. 

Ernst Troeltsch has shown how the extraordinarily 
subtle balance between church and society, between super¬ 
nature and nature, and between Christian doctrine and 
natural law, which is characteristic of the medieval situa¬ 
tion, is the result of two sets of forces; namely, those of 
theology and of theory on the one hand, and those of social 
life and of practice on the other hand. The comprehensive 
system of Thomism is thus not only the formulation of the 
guiding ideals of medieval culture, but also the explana¬ 
tion and justification of a particular experiment in build¬ 
ing a Christian order. The main features of this order are 
well known: the authority of the powerful and centralized 
ecclesiastical system over the whole of culture; the separa¬ 
tion of the church from the state, but not of the state from 
the church; the adoption of a conception of natural law 
according to which the family, the authority of the state, 
the social order with its stratification in different stations 
and with private property, all belong to the order of crea¬ 
tion; the organic and patriarchal character of human rela¬ 
tions; and the idea of the corpus Christianum, the coter¬ 
minous relation of Christendom and society, which — to 
use a phrase of Professor Ernest Barker — is “a single 
integrated community-state-and-church.” 

This medieval pattern has remained the ideal of the 
Roman Catholic Church until this day. In fact, through 
the official sanction given to Thomism, it is today more 
than ever the normative conception of the Christian so¬ 
ciety. Thus the encyclical Ubi arcano Dei compares our 
present political anarchy with “ that veritable league of 
nations which existed in the Middle Ages and which was 
a community of the Christian peoples,” and Baron von 


50 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Hiigel considers the “ golden age of Scholasticism ” as 
“ nearest to the ideal.” It should, however, be added that 
there is a growing number of Roman Catholic theologians 
who consider that “ the medieval dream has definitely come 
to an end, that the meaning of our revolutionary epoch is 
to do away with the last remnants of the so-called corpus 
Christianum, and that in many respects the church is 
thrown back into the situation of the early church.” 

The peculiar character of the Roman Catholic attitude 
toward society consists largely in this consistent loyalty to 
the guiding ideas of its classical epoch. Such new forces as 
those of capitalism and socialism, of democracy and totali¬ 
tarianism, have not affected this attitude to any important 
extent; they have in fact only led the church to organize 
itself more definitely for the defense of its heritage. The 
story of the Roman Catholic Church since the Council of 
Trent is essentially the story of the increasingly uncompro¬ 
mising and explicit definition of the ecclesiological and 
sociological ideas which were implied in the medieval 
order. 

This, however, does not mean that the Roman Catholic 
Church is necessarily conservative and reactionary in its 
social and political attitudes. For the application of the 
medieval principles leads in many cases to a progressive 
position in social questions. The famous encyclicals on 
social questions have vigorously denounced our present 
social and economic order, and contain far-reaching pro¬ 
posals for its improvement. Thus the encyclical Quadra- 
gesimo anno says: “ Unbridled ambition for domination 
has succeeded the desire for gain; the whole economic life 
has become hard, cruel and relentless in a ghastly meas¬ 
ure.” Roman Catholic politicians and sociologists have 
often been, and are today, among the severest critics of 
capitalistic individualism, and Roman Catholic trade 


The Churches in History 


5i 

unions and other societies have played an important part 
in obtaining more advanced social legislation. But official 
Roman Catholicism can never accept such more radical 
solutions of the social problem as those of Marxism, or 
even of democratic socialism, and that not merely because 
such movements are often antireligious or secular in char¬ 
acter, but also because the ideas of private property and of 
the limitation of state interference in economic life are 
constitutive elements of the Roman Catholic social ethic. 

In practice, this means that Roman Catholicism as a 
whole tends to defend those elements in society which are 
still reminiscent of the corporative, precapitalist order, and 
to oppose the movements of the social and political left 
wing. Although it has no inherent sympathy with nation¬ 
alist and authoritarian movements, since they are a con¬ 
stant menace to its universalism and limit the freedom of 
the church, it can make its peace more easily with these 
than with the communist movement, which challenges the 
very foundations of the Roman Catholic view of society. 
Seen in this light, the concordats with Italy and Germany, 
the attitude of the Vatican in Spain, and the recent appeal 
to all Christendom to join in an anticommunist crusade, 
are logical consequences of the general attitude of the Ro¬ 
man Catholic Church toward society. At the same time, 
Austria is an example of the positive claims of the church 
to permeate and guide the life of the state and of society as 
a whole. 

The guiding conception is always that of the corpus 
Christianum under the leadership of the pope. It Is for 
that reason that Roman Catholic jurists consider that the 
pope should act as arbiter in all international conflicts. 
This is indeed a consistent claim for those who hold that 
the Roman Church “ is the most finished model of the 
universal society, which disposes, through its organization 


52 The Church and Its Function in Society 

and institutions, of a marvelous influence to bring men 
together, not only for the sake of their eternal salvation, 
but even for their material prosperity.” 1 

2. THE CHURCH IN ORTHODOX COUNTRIES 

In order to understand the position of the Eastern Or¬ 
thodox Church in relation to its national and social en¬ 
vironment, it is necessary to remember that Eastern Ortho¬ 
doxy has gone through particularly tragic experiences, and 
that it has practically never had an opportunity to express 
itself in freedom. Again and again it has been confronted 
with political forces which have tried to use it for their 
own ends. It is only recently that sufficient autonomy has 
been achieved to enable the church, at least in some coun¬ 
tries, to elaborate its own answer as a church to the prob¬ 
lems of the social order. 

The Orthodox Church in its historical form is a child 
of Byzantium, and to this day it shows the marks of its 
origin. Justinian had declared: “ Among the greatest gifts 
of God bestowed by the kindness of heaven are the priest¬ 
hood and the imperial dignity. Of these, the former serves 
things divine; the latter rules human affairs and cares for 
them. And therefore nothing is so much a care to the 
emperors as the dignity of the priesthood.” Thus he laid 
the basis for control of the church by the state. The 
church accepted this situation, but not without protesting 
again and again that “ ecclesiastical affairs are concerns of 
the priesthood and the theologians; the administration of 
the exterior matters is the concern of the emperor.” 2 It is 
noteworthy that several of the most highly respected spir¬ 
itual leaders of Orthodoxy, such as John Chrysostom, John 
of Damascus and Theodore of the Studium, opposed the 

1 Encyclical Pacem, Dei munus pulcherrimum. 

2 Theodore of the Studium. 


The Churches in History 


53 

totalitarian claims of the emperors in order to gain free¬ 
dom for the church to proclaim its message without inter¬ 
ference from the outside. Caesaropapism was, then, a con¬ 
dition imposed upon the church rather than a condition 
desired by the church. Charles Diehl, the specialist in By¬ 
zantine history, says, “ Though in the age-long conflict be¬ 
tween the Byzantine church and the state, the church was 
victorious with regard to the use of images, it did not suc¬ 
ceed in overcoming the old tradition which gave the em¬ 
peror authority in religious matters.” 3 It should be added 
that the strong otherworldly tendency of Eastern Christi¬ 
anity often led to an acceptance of the world as it is, and to 
a recognition as Christian of a state and a society which 
“ in a significant degree remained pagan, being only some¬ 
what covered by the Christian garment.” 

The long period of Turkish domination in the Balkan 
peninsula and the autocracy of the Russian tsars strength¬ 
ened the tendency toward “ the passive acceptance of, and 
even subjection to, all existing local governments, so typi¬ 
cal for Orthodox churches.” 4 Orthodox thinkers have 
often justified this situation by attempts to give a doctrinal 
basis to the theory of imperial theocracy or of the religious 
significance of the tsar, but voices have not been lacking 
which considered the interference of the state in religious 
matters a violation of the freedom of the church. 

The result of this development has been that the Ortho¬ 
dox churches are national churches in the strongest sense 
of that term. Their life is bound up with the life of their 
nations to an extent unknown in any other part of the 
world. In the struggle to maintain national traditions 
during the Turkish domination ecclesiastics were often 
the pioneers. The ecumenical patriarch acted as the po- 

3 Byzance, grandeur et decadence , 1919. 

4 A. V. Kartashov in The Church of God, 1934. 


54 The Church and Its Function in Society 

litical representative of the Christians in the Turkish 
empire. In Russia, the identification of the church with 
national aspirations was the result of another set of cir¬ 
cumstances. The church had been the great educator of 
the nation; and when the Byzantine empire collapsed Rus¬ 
sia began to conceive it as its historical mission to become 
the “ liberator of Eastern Orthodoxy, and of universal 
Christianity, from Mohammedan barbarism, and over 
against the Western heretics.” 5 This messianic ideal of 
the “ third Rome ” and of the Russian people as the di¬ 
vinely appointed representative of the only true faith has 
been a powerful element in Russian thought, and strength¬ 
ened the bond between the church and the nation. 

The close connection between church and nation is, how¬ 
ever, not merely a matter of politics or of political ideology. 
It is at the same time the natural result of the Orthodox 
attitude toward the world, which is based on the idea of 
the transfiguration of all earthly realities. The Orthodox 
Church is still in many places a popular church in the 
sense that it is near to the life of the ordinary people. 
This is especially true in the rural communities of eastern 
Europe, which have not been affected by modern tenden¬ 
cies of thought. 

In recent years the situation of the Orthodox Church 
has been profoundly influenced by the new political and 
other currents of thought. In Russia the church was first 
disestablished and then persecuted. It is too early to say 
what attitude the Russian church of the future, purified 
by its martyrdom, will take toward society; but it is likely 
that its attitude will be very different from that of the pre¬ 
revolutionary church. However that may be, the year 
1917 marks the end of the “ Constantine period.” 

In other Orthodox countries the position of the church 
e Dostoievski. v 


The Churches in History 


55 

is no longer so secure and unchallenged as it used to be, 
as secularism in one form or another makes headway. At 
the same time Orthodoxy is in the midst of a process of 
reconsidering its relations to the world. There are many 
Orthodox theologians and laymen today who believe that 
the church should be free and should not serve a political 
regime, and who consider that “ the days are coming to an 
end when the church, as a loving teacher, protected and 
educated the submissive or at least docile energies of 
national life. It seems that a carefully nurtured lamb can 
turn into a dangerous wolf, and has to be treated as such.” 6 
But other Orthodox leaders are still deeply convinced that 
only adherence to the old tradition of the closest possible 
relation between church and state is truly Orthodox. To 
them the pattern of the Byzantine empire and of the de¬ 
velopments which have grown out of it is the normative 
ideal, just as the medieval pattern remains the ideal of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

In many different ways the Eastern churches are giving 
evidence of their desire to use the greater freedom which 
they have gained for positive action in social and national 
life. There is increasing activity in such realms as educa¬ 
tion, rural work and international understanding. And, 
what is even more significant, there is in modern Orthodox 
theology a movement toward a new explanation of Chris¬ 
tian social doctrine which would “ include all sides of the 
natural existence of man in the grace-abounding life of the 
church.” The interest which the Orthodox churches show 
in the various ecumenical movements, particularly in the 
“ Life and Work ” movement, is another sign of their pres¬ 
ent concern with questions of social morality. 

It has sometimes been said that the Orthodox churches 
live in an “ extra-historical ” world. If that has been true 
e A. V. Kartashov, op. cit. 


56 The Church and Its Function in Society 

in the past, it is no longer true today. One of the results 
of the historical crisis of our time, which has affected the 
Orthodox Church more than any other church, is that the 
Orthodox churches are consciously entering into history. 

3 . THE CHURCHES IN GREAT BRITAIN 

In Great Britain, the relations among the church, the 
community and the state were for a long time dominated 
by the old assumption, inherited from the Middle Ages, 
that “in a Christian state or kingdom one and the self¬ 
same people are the church and the commonwealth.” 7 
This principle was at first applied only in favor of the 
Church of England, but since the attempts to impose An¬ 
glicanism on Scotland failed, its application resulted in the 
official recognition of two churches each in a given terri¬ 
tory, the Church of England in England, and the Church 
of Scotland in Scotland. Thus these two churches became 
national churches in that they claimed to embrace the 
whole community; and they became also state churches , 
not in the sense that they were created by the state, but 
rather in that they were established churches “ secured 
and protected by the laws of the land.” This does not 
mean, however, that these churches accept the control of 
the state in spiritual matters. The Scottish church has al¬ 
ways been very emphatic on this point. When it declared 
in 1921: 

This church, as part of the universal church wherein the 
Lord Jesus Christ has appointed a government in the hands of 
church office-bearers, receives from him, its divine King and 
Head, and from him alone, the right and power subject to no 
civil authority to legislate, and to adjudicate finally in all mat¬ 
ters of doctrine, worship, government and discipline in the 
church, . . . 8 

7 Hooker. 

s Declaratory Articles. 


The Churches in History 


57 

it could affirm that these principles contained nothing 
which had not been claimed in the previous history of the 
Scottish church. 

The Church of England’s assertion of independence 
from the state in spiritual matters was not made so cate¬ 
gorically and consistently, but “ the church never aban¬ 
doned its claim for spiritual independence.” 9 Though 
the church as such has not officially reconsidered the ques¬ 
tion of its relations to the state until our own times, power¬ 
ful movements within it have at different periods struggled 
for greater spiritual autonomy. The Non-Jurors, the 
Tractarians, the Christian Social Movement and other 
forces have all contributed to the renascence of the prin¬ 
ciple that in matters spiritual the church ought to be a self- 
determining and autonomous authority. The anomalous 
position created by the rejection of the Revised Prayer 
Book has recently provided another important element in 
the growth of this new conception. At the present time 
proposals are being studied which imply that the church 
would remain a national church, but that it would be free 
from the necessity of bringing measures related to spiritual 
concerns in any way under the control of Parliament. 

For our present purpose the important point is that the 
Church of England has been increasingly affirming its spir¬ 
itual existence as a church apart from (and, if necessary, 
over against) the state and society. This development has 
its roots in a new understanding of the church’s mission 
in the world. Although in the past the Church of England 
has often given the impression of being no more than the 
religious department of the state and an organ of conser¬ 
vation rather than of prophetic leadership, under the in¬ 
fluence of a deeper recognition of the implications of 
churchmanship (the Oxford Movement and the Evangeli- 
9 Report on Church and State, 1935. 


58 The Church and Its Function in Society 

cal revival), and of the Christian social task (Maurice, 
Kingsley, Westcott, the Lux Mundi group, and more re¬ 
cent Christian social movements), it has come to realize 
“ the function of a national church as the interpreter of the 
Christian creed, and the Christian code of morals, alike in 
the social and the economic spheres of citizenship.” 10 The 
same may be said of the Church of Scotland. 

In this respect, then, the Church of England and the 
Church of Scotland are today in a unique position. Both 
represent somehow the Christian faith of their nations as a 
whole, and both have the opportunity of speaking to the 
state and to the nation with an authority quite different 
from that of a free or disestablished church body. It is 
evident that this situation has its perils. For the close rela¬ 
tion with the state may often lead to an uncritical identifi¬ 
cation with national interests. It should, however, be said 
that on many occasions these two churches have expressed 
themselves very clearly and courageously. The report of 
the Archbishop’s Committee on “ Christianity and Indus¬ 
trial Problems ” (1918), the action of Archbishop David¬ 
son at the time of the general strike (1926), and the reso¬ 
lution on war of the Lambeth Conference of 1930 (i.e., no 
support of a war in regard to which the government has not 
declared its willingness to submit the matter in dispute to 
arbitration or conciliation), are instances which show that 
the Church of England “ can no longer be counted on as a 
reliable bulwark of the existing social structure.” 11 Simi¬ 
larly, a glance at the annual reports of the Committee on 
Church and Nation of the Church of Scotland will show 
that that church conceives it as its duty to give Christian 
guidance to the nation as a whole in matters of social as well 

10 Report on Church and State. 

11 Maurice Reckitt, Faith and Society , 1932. 


The Churches in History 


59 

as of individual ethics, and that it does not merely echo 
the views of government or nation. 

The Free churches — although their position is different 
in that they do not seek to embrace the whole of the nation 
and have no problem of relations with the state — have 
also developed a more positive attitude toward their en¬ 
vironment. Although their influence upon social and po¬ 
litical life, more particularly in the vindication of freedom, 
has been great, they tended to become groups apart from 
the world, which thought of their task largely in terms of 
personal salvation and group sanctification. But more re¬ 
cently they have come to accept their share in the responsi¬ 
bility for the life of society as a whole. Though they were 
on the whole identified with liberalism in politics, just as 
the Church of England was identified with political con¬ 
servatism, they have also provided leadership to various so¬ 
cial and political movements which demand a more radical 
transformation of society. It is interesting to note that the 
majority of the older leaders in the British Labor party 
have come from the ranks of the Free churches and are still 
active church members. This is, however, far from being 
true of the younger generation. 

In spite of the many differences among the churches, and 
groups within the churches, the social doctrines of British 
Christianity appear to the outsider remarkably unified. 
There are within the various churches smaller movements 
of a more radical character, but the main current is that of 
a relatively optimistic and evolutionary view of social and 
international life. Thus the more eschatological position 
which conceives of the state as the God-given power to 
“ restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil¬ 
doers ” 12 has been generally abandoned in favor of a more 
12 Thirty-nine Articles. 


60 The Church and Its Function in Society 

idealistic conception according to which the state has a 
positive value in the natural order, its true raison d’etre 
being the purposes of men in cooperation and not the use 
of force. The influence of the Catholic conceptions of the 
relations of nature and grace and of the sacramental char¬ 
acter of all life has permeated many sections of British 
Christianity, whether they be nominally Catholic or nomi¬ 
nally Protestant. 

The most distinctive characteristic of the situation of 
the churches in Great Britain is certainly that “ the 
churches are not dominant, but still all-pervasive,” so that 
“ even the most bitter political struggles fail to break the 
forms of a Christian culture.” 13 In Britain, as elsewhere, 
the attempt is being made by many “ to form a civilized 
but non-Christian mentality ”; but it has not taken such an 
aggressive form as in other countries. Thus British Chris¬ 
tianity is not forced into opposition to its environment. 
This situation involves the danger of having “ official ” 
Christianity, but it involves also the opportunity of influ¬ 
encing national life as a whole. 

4. THE CHURCHES ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE 

The Protestant churches on the continent of Europe 
have also inherited the medieval ideal of the corpus Chris- 
tianum and of the intimate connection between church, 
society and state. In the sixteenth century “ the concep¬ 
tions of church and state in the modern sense were still un¬ 
known; the basic idea was that of Christendom” 14 Both 
Luther and Calvin made this conception, in different ways, 
the basis of their views of the relations between church, 
community and state. Thus Lutheranism in Germany ac¬ 
cepted the principle “ cuius regio, illius religio” which 

is Reinhold Niebuhr in the Christian Century, November 4, 1936. 

14 Sohm, Kirchenrecht, I, 1892. 


The Churches in History 


61 


led to the formation of national (or territorial) churches, 
whose “ summus episcopus ” was the ruler of each particu¬ 
lar territory. In Switzerland and in Holland, Calvinism 
established national churches which were more independ¬ 
ent, but still closely connected with the respective govern¬ 
ments. Both confessions demanded from the government 
that it protect the church and resist heresy. 

The great change which has come about in the position 
of the European Protestant churches may be described in 
terms of the breaking up of this old unity of state, society, 
and church. 

The state soon began to develop absolutist tendencies 
and put the church into a position very different from that 
which the Reformers had desired for it. Instead of ful¬ 
filling the demands of the church it claimed the right to 
interfere in church life, and that not only in matters of 
constitution and discipline but also in matters of faith and 
worship. In the eighteenth century it became the current 
conception among constitutional theorists that the exercise 
of religion should be not only supervised but also con¬ 
trolled by the government. This Erastian doctrine was a 
caricature of the ideas of the Reformers concerning the 
duties of the state toward the church . 15 But the church 
was not sufficiently alive to its dangers to resist the claims 
of the state. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 
the rise of liberal democratic states led in some countries 
to a separation between church and state, but in these 
countries, as well as in countries where the church re¬ 
mained “ established,” the state continued to restrict the 
sphere of action of the church. 

Society became less and less homogeneous and more and 
more secularized as the waves of the Enlightenment, of 

is See Sasse, “ Kirchenregiment und weltliche Obrigkeit,” Bekennende 
Kirche, Heft 30. 


62 The Church and Its Function in Society 

the French Revolution and of Marxist socialism passed 
over Europe. The intellectual classes became largely in¬ 
different to all religion or turned to non-Christian phi¬ 
losophies. The working classes lost their confidence in 
the church, because it was too closely bound up with the 
(capitalist) state, or because it did not show sufficient sym¬ 
pathy with the cause of social justice. 

The church was slow to realize that the corpus Chris- 
tianum ideal had become a fiction, that both state and 
society were developing along their own lines without re¬ 
gard for the church, and that European civilization was 
slowly disintegrating as the old common convictions lost 
their power in the community. Instead of asserting its 
spiritual autonomy it accepted for a long time the suprem¬ 
acy of the state, and instead of making an aggressive evange¬ 
listic effort to win the masses back to Christianity it lived 
on the strength of its tradition. Thus it became increas¬ 
ingly isolated and lost touch with the forces which were 
transforming social and cultural life. It was only toward 
the middle of the nineteenth century that the churches 
in Europe slowly began to wake up to the new situation. 
Through various revivals, some of a more pietistic, some 
of a more ecclesiastical character, and some in the realm of 
social action, the Protestant churches again became par¬ 
ticipants in the spiritual conflict. 

But since secularism had become the dominant element 
in European culture the action of the church took the form 
of defense rather than of attack. Liberal, socialist and, 
more recently, totalitarian parties and governments tried 
to eliminate the influence of Christianity in the fields of 
politics, social service and education, and were to a large 
extent successful in doing so, because church members 
were not alive to their responsibilities. The first task of 
the various revival movements was therefore to strengthen 


The Churches in History 63 

church consciousness and to organize the Christian forces. 
The Calvinist revivals in Holland (Groen van Prinsterer 
and Kuyper) and in Hungary, the Lutheran revival in the 
Church of Sweden (Manfred Bjorkquist and Einar Bill¬ 
ing) , and the Inner Mission in Denmark, are examples of 
this development. 

Some of these new movements, however, did not confine 
themselves to the strengthening of the church. Although 
their theological positions were very different, the Dutch 
Protestant parties, the religious socialists in Switzerland 
and other countries, the Christian social movement in 
Germany, the collaborators of the Sigtuna Foundation 
in Sweden, and the Christianisme Social in France, all 
desired to make Christianity once more a force for right¬ 
eousness in social and political life. 

In the postwar years there has been a rediscovery of the 
Reformation which has expressed itself in many different 
ways. Although it has strengthened the confessional con¬ 
sciousness it is a unified movement, at least to the extent 
that it demands a clear recognition of the uniqueness of 
the Christian message over against the various secular 
philosophies of our time, and seeks to recapture the spir¬ 
itual autonomy of the church. 

In Germany the conflict between the church and the 
modem world has taken a particularly acute form. 
Though there had been a number of movements which 
tried to revive a consciousness of the spiritual independ¬ 
ence and of the evangelistic and social task of the church, 
the church as such was too divided and too closely con¬ 
nected with the old tradition of territorial church govern¬ 
ment to undertake the responsibilities imposed on it by 
the spiritual situation of the country. The disestablish¬ 
ment of the churches after the World War did not produce 
a decisive change; and so the church as such was unpre- 


64 The Church and Its Function in Society 

pared for the completely new situation which arose in 
1933 when the National Socialist government came into 
power. On the other hand, the theological renewal which 
had taken place in the ten years preceding 1933 had 
prepared the way for a new and deeper understanding 
of the nature and function of the church, so that there 
was far more spiritual substance in the church than 
appeared on the surface. This is not the place to describe 
the church conflict in Germany, but it should at least 
be noted that the issue with which the German church 
has to deal is not simply the old one of the right relations 
with a more or less Christian or indifferent government, 
but rather of the relations with a government which is 
consciously based on a particular semireligious ideology 
and is determined to have its ideology accepted by the 
nation as a whole. The issue is complicated by the fact 
that a section of the church advocates a synthesis between 
Christianity and National Socialism and claims that the 
church’s faith and order should be adapted to the new 
ideology. In the face of these attacks on the very basis 
of the church’s existence there has arisen a strong move¬ 
ment of “ confessing ” Christians, who resist all attempts 
to introduce into the church ideas concerning faith or 
order which do not have their origin in Holy Scripture 
and the confessions. Thus there is in Germany today 
an ecclesia militans which is struggling hard for the right 
of the church to be itself, that is, to speak and act in obedi¬ 
ence to Jesus Christ, and to him alone. 

The church conflict in Germany is not an isolated phe¬ 
nomenon, but rather a striking example of the general 
conflict which has arisen between the church and European 
civilization. In many countries the church is confronted 
with the problem of its attitude toward the powerful new 
political ideologies, which are all more or less totalitarian 


The Churches in History 65 

and therefore attempt to use the church for secular ends. 
The European churches are thus forced to a realization 
of the fact that the era in which Europe was officially 
Christian is over. 

The elements [i.e., the gospel and the world] which had 
rightly or wrongly become combined are being separated. 
Thus the church is called to a completely new freedom in its 
witness to, and its understanding of, the gospel. Not to an 
escape from the world or out of the world, but to a freedom in 
the world such as did not exist in the order inaugurated by 
Constantine. Not to a freedom from its solidarity with the 
world, and therefore not to a freedom from its mission, its re¬ 
sponsibility, its service in the world, but to a freedom to fulfill 
its own mission, to accept its own responsibility, and to render 
its own service in the world, and for the world. 16 

At the present moment the churches in Europe are in 
the midst of the difficult process of learning this lesson. In 
so far as they are alive to the signs of the times they 
realize that in the face of new conceptions of state and 
of society they must reconsider their traditional ideas 
concerning the relations between the church and the 
world. It is therefore practically impossible to generalize 
about the convictions of the European Protestant churches 
in relation to the state and the community. Large sec¬ 
tions of European Protestantism are still unaware of the 
new challenge; others try to get the church to identify 
itself with anticommunist and procapitalist, or antifascist 
and prosocialist fronts, and still others have come to see 
that the task of the church is not to allow itself to be 
exploited for secular purposes, but to combat all ideologies 
which make totalitarian demands and to proclaim its 
own message of concrete obedience to the claims of Christ. 
The newer theological development which is now begin- 

16 Karl Barth in Theologische Existenz heute, no. 25. 


66 The Church and Its Function in Society 

ning to affect church life as a whole, and particularly the 
younger generation, leads to a critical evaluation of the var¬ 
ious entangling alliances between the church and the 
world, to a healthy impatience with the bourgeois con¬ 
servatism which is still widespread in church circles, and 
to attempts, chaotic as yet but none the less encour¬ 
aging, to elaborate a Christian ethic in relation to modern 
realities. It is unlikely that these attempts will lead to a 
crystallization of thought and attitude until the great 
preliminary issues of the nature of the church and its 
message have been faced so radically and so generally 
that the church can once more speak with spiritual 
authority. 

5. THE CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES 

With very few exceptions the churches in the United 
States owe their origin to the church in Europe. But this 
does not mean that they can be understood in the light 
of their European antecedents. On the contrary, the 
peculiar conditions of American history have shaped the 
life of these churches to such an extent that it can be 
said that in the United States “ the church entered on a 
new development.” 

The distinctive characteristics of the situation may be 
summarized in the following three points: (1) If we take 
the United States as a whole, no church can claim to be 
predominant either by virtue of numbers or by virtue of 
its connection with national history. There are at least 
eight groups of churches, each of which can claim to have 
played a large part in the spiritual history of the country. 
(2) The churches whose origins go back to what Troeltsch 
has called the “ sect type ” (voluntary societies rather than 
mass churches) represent about two-thirds of American 


The Churches in History 67 

Protestantism. These churches have therefore been able 
to become the dominant force in the religious situation. 
(3) Although in the early period of American history a 
number of “ established ” churches existed none of these 
was ever established in relation to the nation as a whole. 
The first amendment to the Constitution said clearly that 
“ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion/’ and though this meant at the time simply 
that the states were left free in matters of religion it led 
inevitably to a separation between church and state. It 
is important to remember that “ the reason for writing 
the amendment into the basic law of the land was no 
hostility or indifference to religion, but rather an un¬ 
willingness to curtail the freedom of the states in religious 
matters, or to give federal support to any particular form 
of Christianity.” 17 

The effects of these circumstances upon the conception 
of the church have been momentous. The great variety 
of existing churches and the absence of any comprehen¬ 
sive national church meant in practice that Christians 
in the United States began to think in terms of churches 
rather than of the church. This tendency was strength¬ 
ened by the influence of the “ sect type,” which emphasized 
the local congregation rather than the common national 
or international bond. It is interesting to compare the 
conviction of John Robinson, the Congregationalist pio¬ 
neer, that the word “ catholic ” defined the nature of the 
church rather than its extension, and that the only reality 
was the particular Christian organization, with the follow¬ 
ing statement in a recent report to the Federal Council: 
“ To an extraordinary degree the loyalties of our member¬ 
ship are concentrated on the local church. There is a 
17 Samuel McCrea Cavert. 


68 The Church and Its Function in Society 

declining measure of loyalty to the denomination. There 
is very little sense of loyalty to the church as a universal 
order of human life.” 18 

The separation of church and state worked in the same 
direction. For it meant that the churches became volun¬ 
tary societies in the eyes of the civil law. “ Inevitably this 
idea has strongly affected the thinking of church people 
about the church. It is directly encouraged by their 
legal status, and flourishes in a democratic atmosphere.” 19 
The report which has just been cited says: “ Many churches 
are depending too largely today upon the same motives 
which maintain clubs, lodges and philanthropies.” The 
extraordinary frequency of changes from membership 
in one denomination to membership in another con¬ 
firms the truth of this observation. 

Thus the churches in the United States are character¬ 
ized by a far greater mobility than are those in Europe. 
Theirs is a “ spirit of innovation ” — which was, of course, 
specially strong on the frontier — leading to a “ divorce 
from the historic past.” “ Not since the first three cen¬ 
turies, with their many branches of Gnostics, has the church 
anywhere seen so large a body of Christians who have 
broken so nearly completely from much that is normally 
termed the Catholic tradition.” 20 More recently, how¬ 
ever, there has grown up, especially among the ministry, a 
new interest in Catholic theology and Catholic forms of 
worship. 

In their relation to society the churches in the United 
States have tended to become increasingly “ organizations 
concerning themselves largely with the establishment of 
the kingdom of God on earth.” 21 They belong to the 
“ theocratic ” type which “ deals with the problem of 

is Report on the State of the Church. 20 k. S. Latourette. 

19 Robert Hastings Nichols. 21 Robert Hastings Nichols. 


The Churches in History 69 

realizing God’s will,” which has “ not so much the char¬ 
acter of a carrying and including mother, as that of a 
ruling and commanding father,” and in which “ the holy 
is sought, not given, for it is dependent on decision and 
perfection.” 22 The Puritan ideal led them to feel re¬ 
sponsible for the moral welfare of the nation; and so, with 
very few exceptions, the churches have constantly tried, 
and often with success, to influence the social morality 
of the nation as a whole. Since the beginning of this 
century the “ social gospel,” which has found many fol¬ 
lowers among the ministry but has affected the laity to 
a lesser extent, has been seeking to widen the ethical 
concern of the church to include the whole of society. 
Thus many churches have gone on record as favoring 
far-reaching adjustments in the social order. And the 
Federal Council of the Churches has worked out a social 
creed based on its purpose “ to transform society in ac¬ 
cordance with Christian ethical ideals,” and has spoken 
out on a large number of specific social issues. 

On the other hand, the desire to be in the closest pos¬ 
sible touch with the life of society and of the nation, 
and the gradual disappearance of the eschatological em¬ 
phasis of the older Puritanism and of the exclusivism 
of the original “ sect ” ideal, have led to a blurring of the 
distinction between the church and the world. “ The 
dividing line between church and society becomes in¬ 
distinguishable. ... As a consequence there has never 
been a really life-and-death struggle between religion and 
secularism in America.” 23 Thus the church has often 
become so much a part of secular society that it could 
not effectively challenge it. Moreover, its danger, like 
that of most European churches, is that it might become 

22 Paul Tillich in Social Research, February, 1936. 

23 Reinhold Niebuhr in the Christian Century , November 4, 1936. 


70 The Church and Its Function in Society 

identified with one particular class. The report on the 
state of the church says: “ Another entanglement of the 
church today which impresses us as a matter of grave con¬ 
cern is its assimilation of the assumptions and ideals of 
the comfortable middle class.” 

In different ways the churches in the United States are 
now engaged in the attempt to recapture the prophetic 
element in their Christian tradition and to become once 
again churches which are in the world but not of the 
world. The critical analysis of the present situation in the 
report on the state of the church leads to the conclusion 
that “ the Christian church needs to disentangle itself from 
various forms and habits of mind characteristic of our 
present society, that it may take hold of the moral and 
spiritual issues of that society with greater sincerity and 
power.” This same note is predominant in the theology 
of many younger theologians, and leads to a reconsider¬ 
ation of the older forms of liberalism and “ social gospel ” 
theology. There is no desire to give up the concern for 
society as a whole, but it is believed that the basis of a 
critique of society is a transcendent loyalty and a new con¬ 
ception of the suprahistorical character of the church. 

The problem of the relations between church and state 
is once more being widely discussed. Though it cannot 
be said that the American state has totalitarian tendencies 
at present, there have been indications that the possibility 
of a development in the totalitarian direction is a real 
one and that the question of the relations between church 
and state is by no means solved. The situation has been 
summarized by Samuel McCrea Cavert in the following 
terms: 

In several European countries today the burning question 
for the church is, How can it maintain its own freedom against 
encroachment by the state? In America the question is. How 


The Churches in History 


7i 

can the church influence and guide the life of society and of 
the state? Unless we can answer the American question now, 
we may have to face the European question later. 24 

6 . THE YOUNGER CHURCHES 

The younger churches differ greatly from one another 
in matters of doctrine, forms of worship, and church order, 
for they reflect the many differences which exist among 
the older churches to which they owe their origins. But 
they have much in common in the realm with which we 
are dealing in this section, for they are all confronted by 
civilizations based upon and conditioned by non-Chris¬ 
tian religions. In Asia as well as in Africa, 

Christianity comprises only a small minority of the people; and 
although its influences radiate far beyond this immediate cir¬ 
cle, it is a new and foreign phenomenon in a world of deep- 
rooted religions, ancient institutions and customs. The 
younger churches are beginning their career in face of changes 
as gigantic as any that have taken place in history. . . . The 
meeting between Europe, the most vital power of recent cen¬ 
turies, and the east, has caused a psychological, social, cultural, 
moral and religious earthquake in the east. ... It is within 
this general framework that the meeting between Christianity 
and other religions takes place. . . . The small Christian com¬ 
munities have to fulfill their task and develop their life amid a 
world in transition, a transition in which they are themselves 
involved. 25 

The most difficult aspect of this situation is certainly 
the fact that, owing to the simultaneous appearance in 
Asia and Africa of western political penetration and west¬ 
ern Christian missions, Christianity in the eyes of Asiatics 
and Africans is a part of and an expression of western ex- 

24 For a full treatment of the problem of church and state in the United 
States see Church and State in Contemporary America by W. Adams Brown, 
New York, 1936, a work written with special reference to the Oxford Con¬ 
ference. 25 h. Kraemer. 


7 2 The Church and Its Function in Society 

pansion. This misunderstanding has often been strength¬ 
ened by the impression created by certain missionary 
methods which seemed to be aiming at creating churches 
on a purely western rather than on an eastern or African 
model. Again, the fact that the overwhelming majority 
of members of the younger churches have come from 
classes of the population which had little or no share 
in the cultural life of their nations has imposed great 
handicaps on the church in relation to its environment and 
has often made it appear to be an exotic institution. 

The main task which faces the younger churches is 
therefore that of becoming truly indigenous to the vari¬ 
ous nations in which they live and work. All over the 
east “ the indigenous church is a problem, not a fact,” 26 
though some younger churches are more advanced than 
others along this line. The main issue is not merely 
whether the younger churches can become fully self- 
governing and self-supporting, but rather whether these 
churches, after having become independent, can find such 
a relation to their cultural, social and political environ¬ 
ment that their message is not misunderstood as denation¬ 
alizing propaganda, but understood as a supranational 
and eternal gospel. There is also, of course, the danger 
that the attempt to relate the church to its environment 
may lead to an adaptation of the content of the Christian 
message to non-Christian systems, and thus to a syncretism 
which is spiritually powerless. The situation is further 
complicated by the fact that the eastern mind tends to re¬ 
gard the traditions of the collective group as the authori¬ 
tative norm in all matters of faith and morality, and does 
not distinguish clearly between national cultural heritage 
and religious truth. 

The younger churches are attempting to deal with these 
26 D. T. Niles in the Student World, Fourth Quarter, 1935. 


The Churches in History 


73 

problems by emphasizing in word and act their solidarity 
with their national environment while remaining loyal to 
the common heritage of the Christian church. Thus there 
are many signs that in theology and worship, in religious 
art and literature, they are seeking to express themselves 
less and less in western and more and more in eastern 
forms. Again, several of the younger churches have come 
to support the national political aspirations of their people. 
“ Perhaps the most interesting development of recent 
years is the fact that Christianity, which was once upon a 
time so aloof from the thought and life of the people, 
has capitulated and come to an understanding with nation¬ 
alism.” 27 In most of the countries concerned this na¬ 
tionalism is one of self-expression rather than of conquest 
or domination. But the relations to the national move¬ 
ments remain a delicate problem, for every form of na¬ 
tionalism may develop into a new religion which crowds 
out loyalty to God. 

The younger churches are thus exposed to the severe test 
whether they can be so open to the moving of the Spirit of God 
as to be able to discern where their solidarity with the national 
ideals demands wholehearted service of the nation, and where 
their fundamental solidarity in God demands prophetic utter¬ 
ance amid and, it may often be, against their own people. 28 

The relations between the younger churches and the 
state vary considerably because the states with which they 
have to deal are so different. In India and in the Dutch 
East Indies the governments take an attitude of prudent 
neutrality toward all religions. They do not help the 
churches in any way, but neither do they hinder their de¬ 
velopment, except in so far as they create the impression 
that they prefer the religious status quo to any large-scale 

27 S. K. Datta in the Student World, Fourth Quarter, 1930. 

28 H. Kraemer. 


74 The Church and Its Function in Society 

conversion movements. In China the government is not 
unsympathetic to Christianity, but it has forbidden the 
teaching of religion in registered private schools. In Tur¬ 
key all forms of religious propaganda are forbidden. In 
Japan, the state is proclaiming its own religious absolute¬ 
ness with increasing definiteness and exclusiveness, and 
is demanding from adherents of all religions that they 
take part in emperor worship, which is called a merely 
patriotic cult but which has in fact the characteristics 
of religious worship. The younger churches are thus be¬ 
ginning to be confronted with the same issues which have 
arisen in several western countries; but the difference is 
that they have neither numbers nor a Christian tradition 
behind them. 

In their attitude toward the social order the younger 
churches have given their main attention to the practical 
tasks of rural reconstruction, mass education and the im¬ 
provement of industrial conditions. These tasks are so 
pressing and so overwhelming that the more theoretical 
problems of social ethics have necessarily been given a 
secondary place. In Japan and China, however, the emer¬ 
gence of communism has led to the formation of move¬ 
ments which advocate changes based on Christian prin¬ 
ciples in the social order. There is, for instance, the 
well known movement of Toyohiko Kagawa, which con¬ 
siders the cooperative movement in its various forms to 
be the Christian solution of the social problem. But other 
Christians in the Far East, and more recently in India, 
incline toward more radical solutions along the lines of 
the socialist parties of the west. 

It is obvious that the peculiar conditions in which the 
younger churches find themselves will also have a great 
influence on their conception of the church. But since 
the younger churches are still in the process of formation 


The Churches in History 


75 

it is too early to say what this influence will be. There 
is a danger that impatience with the church-as-it-is, com¬ 
bined with the individualistic tendency of much mission¬ 
ary teaching, may lead to a “ churchless Christianity.” On 
the other hand, there is genuine desire for church unity, 
which has found expression in the actual union of various 
churches in China and India. The declaration of the 
National Christian Conference at Shanghai in 1922, “we 
believe profoundly that only an united church can save 
China,” certainly represents the convictions of many lead¬ 
ers of the younger churches. But in this matter much 
will also depend on the attitude of the western churches. 
“ It is an open question whether it is going to be possible 
to go forward with plans for unity in the eastern countries 
and in Africa, unless the crucial questions are faced in the 
western churches with the same keen desire to overcome 
them.” 29 

29 William Paton. For a full treatment of the problems with which 
the younger churches are confronted, see Mr. Paton’s recent book, Christi¬ 
anity in the Eastern Conflicts, written with special reference to the Oxford 
Conference. 


Ill 

THE CHURCH AS AN ECUMENICAL 
SOCIETY 


1 . IS THERE A CHURCH IN THE CHURCHES? 

O ur survey of the various doctrinal conceptions of the 
church, and of the position of the churches in the 
world, leaves an impression of bewildering variety and 
lack of unity. It is, of course, true that an attempt to 
state the peculiar characteristics of each church leads au¬ 
tomatically to overemphasis of the points of difference and 
disagreement, and that in many cases there is far more 
actual agreement among the churches than their official 
utterances would seem to indicate. The churches do not 
exist in isolation, but influence one another in numerous 
ways. And historical situations arise in which churches 
of differing confessional backgrounds may be brought 
very near to one another. On the other hand, it must be 
admitted that there are also examples of the opposite de¬ 
velopment. Agreement in formulated conceptions does 
not necessarily mean fundamental and lasting agreement. 
There are churches which are characterized by much in¬ 
ward conflict in spite of the fact that they possess generally 
accepted standards of faith. 

The fact of variety remains, then, a basic reality with 
which we have to deal. But it is not the only reality. The 
survey of the conceptions of the church shows that there 
are certain important points upon which all those churches 
taking part in the ecumenical movement are agreed. The 
chief of these seem to be the following: 

76 


The Church as an Ecumenical Society 77 

(a) All consider that the church is not merely a human 
organization, but a community of which Jesus Christ is 
the Lord and in which he is at work. In other words, 
all conceive of the church as an object of faith. 

(b) All agree that there is essentially only one church, 
since there is only one Lord. As a reality of faith, the 
word church has no plural. 

(c) All agree that the church in which they believe is 
not exhaustively expressed in any given church body. 

The importance of these points should not be under¬ 
estimated. That the churches connected with the “ Life 
and Work ” movement hold these common convictions 
about the nature of the church means at least that they 
have a common point of reference. If they disagree it 
is about the nature of one and the same thing and not, 
as would be inevitable on a more inclusive basis, about 
a series of completely different things. It is only on the 
basis of a clear understanding that the church is essentially 
different from any other religious or moral institution 
that we can hope to find common answers relevant to the 
issues which have to be faced. And it is essential that in 
our utterances and in the life of the ecumenical move¬ 
ment this common understanding find clear and unequiv¬ 
ocal expression. 

But while these points of agreement are important they 
do not lead us very far. For as soon as we try to imple¬ 
ment these statements, and take them as the basis for 
common speech or action, we find that they bear different 
meanings according to the confessional background of 
the person who uses them. We agree that Jesus Christ 
is the Lord of the church; but to some this means that 
his lordship is one which does not admit the introduction 
into the message of the church of any other authorities, 
such as tradition or natural law; to others it means, on the 


78 The Church and Its Function in Society 

contrary, that tradition (in which they see the continuing 
life of Christ in the church) and the orders of nature (in 
which they see the revelation of God’s continuous work¬ 
ing) are equally authoritative. Similarly, if it is said that 
there is only one church, this implies for some churches 
that only one visible church is the true church, but for 
others that no visible church can claim to be the church of 
Christ since all Christian churches together represent that 
reality. These examples might be multiplied ad infinitum; 
but the point is clear, namely, that our belief in the church 
is both the basis which enables us to meet together, and at 
the same time the barrier which makes us unable to speak 
with a united voice. 

It may be asked whether it is not possible to avoid this 
difficulty by leaving this issue aside and by attempting 
to find agreement on Christian ethics irrespective of doc¬ 
trine and ecclesiology. In a sense, that is what the Stock¬ 
holm Conference of 1925 attempted to do. Its committee 
meeting at Halsingborg in 1922 stated in a letter to the 
secretary of the Lausanne Conference committee that its 
desire was to see Christians act corporately “as if they 
were one body in a visible community,” for “ this can be 
done by all equally without calling theological principles 
in question ” (ohne dass theologische Prinzipien ange- 
fochten werden ), and “ doctrine separates, but service 
unites.” 1 But the experience of the subsequent develop¬ 
ment of the ecumenical movement has shown that this 
position needs qualification. At Stockholm it was already 
becoming clear that no lasting understanding in the realm 
of ethics can be arrived at unless there is some measure of 
understanding concerning the assumptions which under¬ 
lie all ethics. The presupposition that there is a funda- 

1 Nathan Soderblom, Pater Max Pribilla und die oekumenische Erweck- 
ung, 1931. 


The Church as an Ecumenical Society 79 

mental unity among Christians on the question of ethics 
proved to be an oversimplification of the real situation. 
As we have seen in our discussion of the relation of the 
churches to their environment, the differences which ex¬ 
ist in that realm are quite as considerable as those in the 
purely doctrinal realm. The need for a theological clari¬ 
fication became even more clear as the Stockholm move¬ 
ment found itself confronted with secular philosophies 
whose significance consisted precisely in the fact that they 
advocated, not merely a different morality, but a wholly 
different outlook upon life which challenged Christianity 
at its very foundation. At the same time, it was increas¬ 
ingly felt that a body representing the churches would 
never be able to speak with any spiritual authority if 
it were to continue to eliminate from its discussions the 
basic question of the nature and the function of the church. 
And so it has become inevitable that, as Dr. Oldham puts 
it, one of the questions of fundamental importance which 
are at the heart of the discussions on church, community 
and state, should be: What is the nature and mission of the 
church? 

It may further be asked whether we should not at least 
deal with the question of the church from a purely ob¬ 
jective and neutral standpoint. If that means that we 
should not choose one of the many different conceptions 
of the church as the only true one, this question should, 
of course, be answered affirmatively. But if it means 
that we should try to speak from a standpoint above and 
beyond the actual standpoints of the various churches, the 
question should be answered negatively. For a standpoint 
which transcends the actual standpoints of the churches 
does not exist. It might perhaps be constructed; but in 
that case the Oxford Conference would create a new and 
different church, and no one will seriously maintain that 


80 The Church and Its Function in Society 

that is its function. The difficult reality is that there is 
no “ ecumenical ” conception of the church which can be 
accepted by all the churches or even by a large majority. 
The very essence of the ecumenical problem is precisely 
that the churches are not at one on this basic matter, and 
that no church, in itself, can claim to represent the solu¬ 
tion of the ecumenical problem. It is a conditio sine qua 
non of any ecumenical work that each church, and the 
ecumenical movement as a whole, realize this fact, and 
not try to cover it up by ambiguous language which means 
different things to different people. It is only by a frank 
facing of real differences that advance can be made in the 
realm of Christian cooperation and unity. 

There is a theory of ecumenical relationships which 
solves the difficulty of the relations of the churches to the 
church by looking upon the existing churches as branches 
of the one true church. According to this theory, no 
church by itself is the church, but each church is part of 
the church, and the purpose of the ecumenical movement 
is to express the spiritual wealth, the variety and the sym¬ 
phonic harmony which are inherent in Christendom as 
a whole. 

This view of the ecumenical situation has its partial 
justification in the New Testament image of the relation 
between the body and its members. There is a sense in 
which the various churches need one another — in order 
to be corrected by each other and in order to express 
more adequately the fullness which is in Jesus Christ. 
But the branch theory generally means more than this, 
and stands for a conception of tolerance which owes its 
origins not to the Bible but to modern humanitarianism. 
Its weakness is that it isolates the question of unity from 
the question of truth. We have seen that the various 
conceptions of the church do not merely supplement one 



The Church as an Ecumenical Society 81 

another — although they do that to some extent — but 
they also contradict one another. It is difficult, for in¬ 
stance, to speak of harmony when some churches say, “ The 
revelation of God is transmitted through the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures and the holy tradition,” 2 and other churches say: 
“Jesus Christ as witnessed unto in the Scriptures is the 
one Word of God. We reject the false teaching that the 
church should acknowledge other events and powers, sys¬ 
tems or truths in addition to and besides this one Word 
of God as source of its proclamation and as revelation of 
God.” 3 Although it should not be forgotten that these 
two statements are incomparable in so far as they have 
been formulated in very dissimilar situations, it is clear 
that they represent conceptions of the church which dif¬ 
fer fundamentally from one another. In other words, the 
reality of the situation demands that everyone choose be¬ 
tween the existing doctrines or — what amounts to the 
same thing — choose against all of them in favor of a new 
and different conception. The branch theory, finally, 
denies the validity of those conceptions of the church which 
claim to be true, and not merely to be aspects of a many- 
sided spiritual harmony. And this is in fact what all 
churches claim, and must claim, though they claim it 
in different ways and in relation to different doctrines. 
At any rate, the advocates of the branch theory must 
recognize that in the ecumenical realm their view of the 
church is just one among many others, and that it can¬ 
not claim to be the ecumenical theory. 

It is precisely because we have to do with nothing less 
than the church which is the body of Christ that we dare 

2 Statement agreed upon by the delegations of the Anglican and Ru¬ 
manian churches at Bucharest, 1935. 

s Declaration of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical 
Church at Barmen, 1934. 


82 The Church and Its Function in Society 

not think in terms of opportunism or compromises. The 
reasons why we should bury our divisions and present 
a truly united front to the world are indeed pressing and 
weighty. No one who has thought through the important 
issues today can fail to feel this, and feel it deeply. We 
should therefore always ask ourselves: Are our differences 
really of such importance that we dare not give them up? 
And we should not have the slightest hesitation in giving 
them up — in fact, we are obliged to give them up — 
if we can do so without sacrificing our loyalty to Christ. 
But we are no less forced to ask the other question: Can we 
give up the truth for which our church stands without 
becoming disloyal to the church, that is, to the truth which 
Christ himself has revealed to us? For it is the duty of 
each church to care desperately for the truth of God. If it 
ceases to do so it ceases to be a church with a message of 
God, and becomes simply a philosophical institution which 
has no longer a message of salvation for men or for the 
world. 

The position is, then, that we believe together that there 
is a church in the churches, but that we cannot say together 
how and where it exists or how and where it functions. 
For some, the marks of the church are the traditional ones 
of acceptance of the creeds and the episcopal order; for 
others, they are in the exclusively biblical purity of doc¬ 
trine; for others, in the personal faith of the church’s mem¬ 
bership; for others again, in complete freedom of doctrine 
and worship. Humanly speaking it is therefore impossible 
to discover how out of these different approaches we may 
come to one common conviction as to what the church in 
the churches really is, and how that conviction should be 
concretely expressed in ecumenical form. 

There is no way out of this situation. For every so- 
called way out proves in fact to be an element which com- 


The Church as an Ecumenical Society 83 

plicates the situation even more. We are therefore obliged 
to recognize the fact of our disagreement as to the nature 
of the church as well as the fact of our agreement as to the 
reality of the church. This means, not that we should 
cease to work for unity, but that we should cease to try to 
force the issue of unity. Our present impasse is a sign that 
unity cannot be made by men, but can be acknowledged 
and received only when God actually gives it. It is with 
unity as with all the gifts of God: we can prepare for it, 
we can pray for it, we can watch for it, but we cannot bring 
it into being. Unity is not achieved; but it happens when 
men listen together to God, and when he is willing to give 
it to them. 

In the meantime, the church in the churches, or better, 
the church universal, remains a reality in which we be¬ 
lieve. As such it is the great critical principle in the life of 
all churches. The very great value of the ecumenical 
movement consists in the fact that by its very existence it 
reminds us of the challenge of that criticism. In its light 
we see more clearly how much our churches have become 
entangled with the world of nations and races and classes, 
and how little they have lived up to their faith in the 
church universal. In its light also we discover what ele¬ 
ments in our divisions are no more than very relative cul¬ 
tural or other human idiosyncrasies which have no right to 
hold the churches apart. In its light we become troubled 
in our consciences about the self-satisfaction and compla¬ 
cency of our churches, and learn to pray that God may give 
us the unity which we ourselves are unable to realize. 

2. CAN THE CHURCHES SPEAK AND ACT TOGETHER? 

At first sight it seems quite superfluous to ask whether 
the churches can speak and act together, for ever since the 
Stockholm Conference the churches have been cooperating 


84 The Church and Its Function in Society 

through the Universal Christian Council for Life and 
Work, and other ecumenical bodies. But in the light of 
our survey of the conceptions of the church and of the 
ecumenical situation, the question arises: What does this 
cooperation mean? Does it mean that the church in the 
churches has in fact found its embodiment, in spite of the 
doctrinal and ecclesiastical barriers between the churches? 
Or is this cooperation simply a question of machinery 
which has nothing to do with the church as such? It is 
important to face these questions; for it is evident that our 
view of the significance and character of the Oxford Con¬ 
ference, as well as of the work df the Universal Christian 
Council, will largely depend on the answers given to them. 

The kind of ecumenical activity of which the Oxford 
Conference is an expression can be conceived in two ways. 
It is possible to conceive of it as a process of study, research 
and discussion the purpose of which is to help individual 
churches and individual Christians to fulfill their Chris¬ 
tian duty in relation to the world, but not to speak in any 
sense as representing the church of Christ. There is much 
to be said for this position. It is first of all a modest stand 
which does not arouse expectations that are hard to meet. 
The churches have indeed much to learn from one another, 
and a pooling of Christian thought concerning the present 
world situation, and the Christian task in that situation, 
is so useful and timely that this purpose alone seems a quite 
sufficient justification for the holding of a world meeting. 
Another advantage of this view would seem to be that it is 
based on a realistic acceptance of the fact that at the present 
moment no ecumenical conference can claim to speak offi¬ 
cially for the churches or to legislate for them. 

But does this conception truly represent the actual situ¬ 
ation? And does it do justice to the demands which are 


The Church as an Ecumenical Society 85 

rightly being made upon the ecumenical movement? 
There are two reasons why it seems inadequate. 

In the first place, the Oxford Conference is composed of 
representatives appointed by the Christian churches. And 
churches are not like governments or scientific societies, 
which can meet without committing themselves. Churches 
are bodies which exist to proclaim the truth of God; and 
it is therefore their function, when they meet individually 
or together, to bear witness to the message which has been 
entrusted to them. Representatives of churches can never 
meet without at least attempting to live up to their main 
obligation, which is to be the church and to announce the 
lordship of Jesus Christ over the w orld. 

In the second place, the particular purpose of the Ox¬ 
ford Conference demands that, in addition to devoting 
itself to study and research, the conference should be ready, 
if God wills, to speak on behalf of the ekklesia theou. This 
purpose is to give guidance to men and women in a world 
which has lost its way and which is frantically trying to 
meet its problems w 7 ith pagan or semipagan philosophies 
and principles. What this w T orld needs today is not in the 
first place new ideas or theories, but the message of divine 
authority wffiich the church alone can bring and the dem¬ 
onstration of the reality of the church. Over against false 
conceptions of state and community, the church needs to 
affirm the existence of a God-given community which tran¬ 
scends all human divisions, and that as a reality and not 
merely as an ideal. This implies that the conference, if it 
is at all to meet the opportunity and challenge of the hour, 
is obliged to affirm that it is itself an expression of that 
community. 

It must, however, be admitted that this second concep¬ 
tion of the ecumenical movement and of the Oxford Con- 


86 The Church and Its Function in Society 

ference seems to raise as many questions as it solves. For, 
as we have already seen, it is impossible to maintain that 
the churches which are taking part in the Oxford Confer¬ 
ence have a common conception of the church; and it is out 
of the question to claim that the utterances of the Oxford 
Conference will have official ecclesiastical authority, or 
that the conference is at all comparable with a veritable 
ecumenical council. 

But is it really the case that the conference must be 
either a purely noncommittal body of church leaders which 
registers agreements and disagreements, or a fully author¬ 
ized and representative body which speaks officially in the 
name of the churches? It would seem that there is a third 
possibility, harder to define but nevertheless as real as the 
other two. This third conception is based on a recognition 
of the two fundamental facts in the ecumenical situation: 
the fact that all the churches concerned believe in the 
church as a reality which transcends any given historical 
church body and is brought into existence not by men but 
by God; and the other fact that these same churches cannot 
at present be brought together into one united church. 

It is impossible for the Oxford Conference to claim that 
its voice is the voice of the church; but it is equally impos¬ 
sible for it to deny that it is such a voice. The positive 
claim is impossible because it can be made only when the 
churches are ready to be reunited into one body in which 
all members accept one another as full members of the 
church, and in which there is a basic agreement on the 
faith and order of the church. The denial is impossible, 
because it would deny in advance that at the Oxford Con¬ 
ference — where more than two or three are gathered in 
the name of Christ — Christ himself may be present, and 
that the Oxford Conference may illustrate the truth: Ubi 
Ghristus, ibi ecclesia. 


The Church as an Ecumenical Society 87 

In these circumstances, the right attitude for the con¬ 
ference is to leave open the question whether and how it 
represents the church, but at the same time to be ready to 
be used as the church of God, if God wants to use it in such 
a way. Concretely, this means that the conference should 
not only register points of agreement and disagreement, 
but should also affirm the basic message of the Christian 
church to the world and thus show that it is concerned not 
merely with trends of thought, with theories and concep¬ 
tions, but above all with the witness to the reality of the 
kingdom of God which has come to the world in Jesus 
Christ. Thus the conference would not only speak about 
the church, but {Deo volente) would manifest the living 
actuality of the church and its relevance to the world. 

If the conference were to think of itself in this way its 
authority would reside, not in official prerogatives or the 
power to represent and commit individual churches, but 
simply in the truth of whatever it has to say. Orthodox 
and Catholics and Protestants can meet on this ground. 
They may disagree as to how the truth which they seek to¬ 
gether in the biblical revelation is finally distinguished and 
recognized, some using as their criterion the acceptance 
of truth by the church as a whole (sobornost; or the prin¬ 
ciple of quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus 
creditum est) , and others putting their confidence in the 
inward testimony of the Holy Spirit; but they can agree 
that in some way which we cannot exactly define the 
church of Christ may speak through the Oxford Con¬ 
ference. 

It is obvious that the Oxford Conference, so conceived, 
would in no way become a substitute for a truly united 
church. For a united church would be characterized by a 
great deal more than this. It would speak on the basis of 
substantial agreement in essentials, while Oxford can at 


88 The Church and Its Function in Society 

best speak only in spite of fundamental disagreements. 
Only a united church would be able to give a fully ade¬ 
quate demonstration of the meaning of the church, as in it 
there would be the full fellowship of witness and of sacra¬ 
ments in common. 

It is possible that the ecumenical movement in the pres¬ 
ent situation may be little more than an international hu¬ 
manitarian organization. It is also possible that, though it 
is not the church of Christ in its fullness, it may be an ear¬ 
nest of the church of Christ which is in the churches and is 
more than the churches. Whether the Oxford Conference 
represents the first or the second of these two possibilities 
we cannot yet know. But in prayer and work we can pre¬ 
pare ourselves to be used as the church and to give a com¬ 
mon witness, in order that the world may know that Jesus 
Christ has been sent by God. 


PART II 


THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH IN 
SOCIETY 

by 

Dr. J. H. OLDHAM 







IV 

THE PREDICAMENT OF THE CHURCH 


B efore we proceed further in our inquiry we do well to 
pause for a moment to reflect on the conclusion 
reached in the last chapter: that the churches, while dis¬ 
agreeing in regard to the nature of the church, are at one 
in believing in its reality, and that they all hold that the 
church is not merely a human organization but a commu¬ 
nity of which Jesus Christ is the living Lord. Familiarity 
must not blind us to the pivotal and startling nature of this 
assertion. On its truth all discussions of the function of 
the church in society hinge. It would, on the other hand, 
be a disastrous self-deception to ignore the fact that for the 
great majority of men today the faith which the churches 
confess is incredible, or at least irrelevant to the problems 
with which in actual life they have to deal. 

It has been the church’s conviction from the beginning 
that it owes its being to an act of God in history. The 
church is the abiding witness to the manifestation in his¬ 
tory of a new reality. The Christian faith is not merely 
that events which took place in Palestine nineteen cen¬ 
turies ago have been the source of spiritual influences 
which have had a profound effect on the life of mankind. 
That is an indubitable historical fact. But the Christian 
faith expressed in the doctrines of the incarnation and the 
atonement means more than this. It implies that events 
took place which changed fundamentally the relations be¬ 
tween God and man and instituted a new era in human 


91 


g2 The Church and Its Function in Society 

life. History now possesses a center . 1 From this center 
it derives its ultimate meaning. This belief has deter¬ 
mined men’s reckoning of time. Our chronology divides 
history into the period which preceded and that which 
follows the birth of Christ. 

The first Christians lived in the consciousness that a new 
age had dawned. As a leading modern scholar has re¬ 
cently said, “ the New Testament writers are clear that 
history is henceforward qualitatively different from what 
it was before Christ’s coming.” 2 God had sent forth his 
Son that men might be adopted as sons. Of this new real¬ 
ity the church is the witness and the continuing embodi¬ 
ment. 

The significance of the Christian assertion that history 
has a decisive center is especially apparent today when men 
in large numbers are becoming dissatisfied with an “ un¬ 
chartered freedom ” and the relativity of their own choices, 
and are turning passionately to an absolute that can com¬ 
mand their unquestioning loyalty. Many are finding in 
the objective facts of race and nation that reality outside 
themselves to which they can make a complete surrender. 
To men who are seeking for a truth outside themselves to 
which they can give their lives, it must make all the differ¬ 
ence whether that to which the church points them is a 
world of ideals or a world of solid and inescapable fact. 
Christianity has always claimed to point men to the latter. 
Its message has been that a new day has dawned, that the 
Word became flesh, that the grace of God has appeared 
bringing salvation to all men. It speaks in the indicative 

1 Cf. Tillich, Religiose Verwirklichung, pp. 110-17 ( an English trans¬ 
lation of this passage appears in his Interpretation of History, pp. 242-65), 
and his paper in the forthcoming volume, The Kingdom of God and 
History. 

2 C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching, p. 217. 


The Predicament of the Church 93 

mood, not in the imperative. Religion, as Baron von 
Hiigel continually insisted, begins and ends with the given. 

The question of the content of the Christian faith and 
of the nature of the church lies outside the scope of the 
Oxford Conference. Its program has to do with the rela¬ 
tion of the church, as it exists in the world today, to the 
community and to the state. But at every point these fun¬ 
damental issues are involved. We cannot address ourselves 
to the real situation in the world today if we put them out 
of mind in order to get on with the job of applying Christi¬ 
anity to contemporary social needs and tasks. The impor¬ 
tant question for the world as well as for the church is. 
What is the Christianity which we want to apply? The 
real crisis of the church relates not to its social program but 
to its faith. The two are not unconnected. But to em¬ 
bark inconsiderately on a discussion of the first without a 
deep awareness of its dependence on the second would be 
to play with a grave situation. 

We cannot hide from ourselves the fact that the truths to 
which the church bears witness in its historic creeds, the 
central affirmations of its testimony, have for multitudes in 
what has been known as Christendom become unreal and 
meaningless. They seem to accord neither with the growth 
of knowledge nor with men’s actual experience of life. As 
an English critic has put it, modern unbelief results from 
a widespread conviction that “ the creeds of the churches 
cannot command a total act of the whole moral being.” 3 

The problem is not, of course, a new one. The position 
of the church has always been one of predicament. It has 
from the beginning made its appeal to what is best in men, 
and at the same time has been a scandal. The gospel of 
Christ crucified has never at any time been other than a 
3 Hugh Fausset, The Modern Dilemma, p. 19. 


94 The Church and Its Function in Society 

stumbling block and a foolishness. Moreover, the situa¬ 
tion in which we now find ourselves is the result of a proc¬ 
ess which has been going on for centuries. Ever since the 
Renaissance, Christian thought has struggled to come to 
terms with the new and growing knowledge and with the 
changes that knowledge has brought about in men’s out¬ 
look and the conditions of their lives. But the question 
has been raised sharply by recent movements in theology, 
and is pressed home on us still more searchingly by our 
grave situation today, whether, in the acuteness of the 
struggle, the substance of the Christian faith has not in 
many instances been surrendered. It is a necessary task to 
interpret the Christian faith to the mind of each age. But 
it is no less necessary to be sure that what we are restating 
is the Christian faith and not something else, or merely 
some fragment of that faith. The plight of the world is too 
serious to allow us through loose thinking to substitute, for 
the beliefs which have sustained, nourished and inspired 
the lives of Christian men and women through the cen¬ 
turies, some totally different religion. This is not the place 
to inquire how far particular theologies, ancient or mod¬ 
ern, conserve or discard the essentials of the Christian faith. 
We must see clearly, however, that all discussion relating to 
church, community and state turns on the central question: 
Do the affirmations which have formed the core of Chris¬ 
tian conviction through the centuries still have significance 
for the world today? If these affirmations have ceased to 
be valid, it is not easy to understand why the church should 
be regarded as having crucial significance for the life of the 
world. If it has nothing to say to men beyond what they 
can by reflection on their own experience discover for 
themselves, if it does nothing more than add a religious 
flavor to the values which the community is already pur¬ 
suing, the salt surely has lost its savor and the significance 


The Predicament of the Church 95 

of the church for society becomes of secondary importance. 
The church may, perhaps, be worth preserving as a cultural 
association. But unless it has a Word that is not from men 
but from God, a Word of divine redemption, a truth not 
of its own making to which it can point men, it is not the 
church in which through the ages Christian men and 
women have found salvation and power to serve the world. 

It would, however, be a dangerously false diagnosis and 
a complete misunderstanding of the situation which must 
engage our attention to suppose that all that is needed is a 
return to orthodoxy. The problem is far more compli¬ 
cated. A complacent return to orthodox theology would 
be an evasion, not a solution, of the problem of the church 
in the world today. To make such a return would be to re¬ 
duce Christianity to an esoteric faith of a relatively small 
— and probably diminishing — number of believers, a 
faith lacking any real relevance for the total life of the 
world. It would be to renounce the mission of the church 
to the world as a whole which is implied in the faith that 
it is the bearer of a divine revelation and redemption. For 
the cardinal fact with which we have to reckon, when we 
propose to take the church seriously, is that for large sec¬ 
tions of the population in what was formerly known as 
Christendom — not to speak here of the non-Christian 
world and its needs — the traditional Christian ideas have 
ceased to have any living meaning. It is not so much that 
men disbelieve in Christianity as that they feel it to be en¬ 
tirely irrelevant to their actual experience of life. It may 
be doubted whether Christian people as a whole are alive 
to the extent to which this loss of meaning has taken place. 
Those whose responsibilities, as clergy or church workers, 
compel them to move for the most part in circles over 
which the Christian tradition retains its hold have often 
little idea how completely unintelligible what is said in the 


96 The Church and Its Function in Society 

pulpit is to the large classes of which we are speaking — 
unintelligible in the sense that it makes no effective contact 
with their experience. There is, of course, a preaching 
which makes itself intelligible by saying nothing very dif¬ 
ferent from what the listeners already know and think. 
But the problem which concerns us here is that of giving to 
the tremendous and startling affirmations of the historic 
Christian faith a meaning and an expression which make a 
living challenge to the thought and life of the ordinary 
man. 

Only by a firm resolve to be rid of all shams and make- 
believe and to face unflinchingly the truth, however un¬ 
palatable, can the church hope to become an effective force 
in the world today. Let us, therefore, on the threshold of 
our present task attempt to see without illusion the posi¬ 
tion of the church in the present life of the world. 

If the picture is not to get out of perspective we must 
remember that general statements do not apply in equal 
degree to all countries; and we must also give full weight 
to the remarkable advances of Christianity in the past two 
centuries. This period has witnessed, in the modern mis¬ 
sionary movement, the widest expansion of the Christian 
faith that has taken place in Christian history. The church 
has followed the vast migrations of European peoples to 
North America, Australasia and South Africa, and has suc¬ 
ceeded in maintaining the allegiance of these new nations 
to the faith of their forefathers. Professor Paul Douglass, 
in his paper in the forthcoming volume, Church and Com¬ 
munity , draws attention to the fact that, whereas at the 
close of the American colonial period probably not more 
than five per cent of the population belonged actively to 
the church, the proportion is now 50 per cent, and the 
present ratio of church members to the total population is 
higher than it has ever been before in the history of the 


The Predicament of the Church 97 

American churches. During the past century and a half, 
as Professor Latourette points out in a contribution to the 
same volume, more new orders and congregations have 
come into existence in the Roman Catholic Church than in 
the whole of its previous history. Similarly, there have 
been in Protestantism many new movements within the 
churches and many new enterprises have been undertaken 
by them, and such widespread organizations as the Young 
Men’s and Young Women’s Christian associations, the 
World’s Student Christian Federation and the Sunday 
school movement have come into existence. Far-reaching 
movements for humanitarian reform, too numerous to 
mention, have drawn inspiration and support from the 
churches or have had as their promoters and leaders men 
and women impelled by the Christian motive. 

It would be wrong not to draw from these facts encour¬ 
agement and hope for the future. But they must not blind 
us to another fact, that there has gone on simultaneously 
during the same period throughout the world an immense 
secularization of men’s thoughts and interests. The world 
carries on its work without taking serious account of the 
Christian affirmations, which, if they are true, transform 
all our ideas about the meaning and end of man’s existence, 
about his relations with his fellows in society, and about 
the ends of his economic and political activities. It is, per¬ 
haps, a reason for encouragement that in some countries 
today the persecution of the church is making the profes¬ 
sion of the Christian faith in a new sense a live issue. 

Take the modern universities in Europe and America 
and Asia, where the youth of the world are acquiring their 
ideas about the ends and tasks and responsibilities of life. 
In how many will you find among the members of the 
teaching staff more than a very small minority of convinced 
Christians? The tide in some quarters is perhaps turning. 


98 The Church and Its Function in Society 

It has been said with some truth that in certain countries 
in western Europe, while the masses are drifting away from 
the church the intellectuals are beginning to return to the 
faith. In present-day French literature the claims of Chris¬ 
tianity are a subject of keen debate. But it remains none 
the less true that in the universities of the world the prob¬ 
lems of man and of society are being studied without heed 
to the central Christian affirmations as an interpretation of 
life that merits serious consideration. 

Or again, visit any of the large cities in countries tradi¬ 
tionally and professedly Christian and ask among those 
who bear the major civic responsibility and who conduct 
the activities of social welfare — including those who still 
retain the habit of attending church services — for how 
many of them the historic assertions of the Christian faith 
are a living, conscious inspiration; or, as a still more illu¬ 
minating question, for how many these affirmations consti¬ 
tute the substance of a clearly held faith which they desire 
and endeavor to transmit to their children. The num¬ 
ber will probably be very small. Or consider the multi¬ 
tudes among the working classes in all western countries 
which have broken consciously, and to all appearances ir¬ 
revocably, with the Christian tradition because its assump¬ 
tions and values have no recognizable relevance to the 
realities of their lives. Between their way of regarding life 
and what is uttered in the pulpit there is a gulf which in 
many instances seems to be unbridgeable. Add to this that 
in Russia, and perhaps increasingly in other parts of the 
world, every agency for molding and influencing public 
opinion is being used deliberately and with concentrated 
energy to implant in the minds of the entire population 
conceptions of life totally irreconcilable with the Christian 
view, so that the capacity even to understand that view may 
be almost wholly destroyed. 


The Predicament of the Church 99 

It is not suggested that the church alone is to blame for 
this state of things. Our purpose is not to criticize or as¬ 
sign responsibility but simply to see the facts as they are. 
The secularization of life is the result of men’s choices. 
Men have given themselves to the pursuit of this-worldly 
ends. They have preferred the material to the spiritual. 
They have sought the heaven upon earth which they be¬ 
lieved their own efforts could create. They are captivated 
by utopias which promise comfort and prosperity. They 
live by theories which blind them to the realities of human 
existence. They are no longer able to see the ultimate 
facts which encompass man’s life — the realities of death, 
sin, judgment and God. This concentration of interest on 
the present life, which is ultimately rooted in the choice of 
individuals, passes into and permeates the whole texture 
of social life so that it becomes the climate and temper of 
the age, to the benumbing influence of which all, Chris¬ 
tians as well as non-Christians, are in greater or less degree 
subject. There is a prevailing insensibility to spiritual 
issues which causes the church’s message to fall on deaf ears. 

But while the responsibility for this state of things does 
not lie wholly with the church, the church’s failure and 
shortcoming have contributed to the result. It has not 
swum with sufficient vigor against the stream. It has al¬ 
lowed its own life and attitudes and activities to become 
secularized. If it is to serve the world it must begin with 
an inward reformation. Its consideration of its relations 
to society and to the state must be rooted in a deep re¬ 
pentance. 

The question of what is demanded of the church in this 
situation will engage our attention in the pages which fol¬ 
low. But in order that we may approach our task with 
fitting humility it is well for us to recognize at the start that 
the churches represent only a minority and, if we disregard 


ioo The Church and Its Function in Society 

those whose adherence to Christianity has ceased to be 
more than nominal, only a small minority of the popula¬ 
tion of the world. Even where the church still appears to 
be a considerable factor in the life of the community we 
must be on our guard lest its historic position, the force of 
persisting custom, the impressiveness of a large enrolled 
membership, and the tolerant and friendly indifference of 
the community and of the state conceal from us an inner 
weakness and loss of power to give real direction to the 
thoughts and purposes of men. The judgment of one of 
the keenest observers of the contemporary scene may al¬ 
most certainly be taken as not merely an individual opin¬ 
ion, but as expressing the mind of many thoughtful lay¬ 
men who stand outside or on the fringe of church life. 
“ Protestant Christianity,” writes Professor A. N. White- 
head, 

so far as concerns the institutional and dogmatic forms in 
which it flourished for three hundred years as derived from 
Luther, Calvin and the Anglican Settlement, is showing all the 
signs of a steady decay. Its dogmas no longer dominate: its 
divisions no longer interest: its institutions no longer direct the 
patterns of life. 4 

The churches will accomplish their purposes in proportion 
as they are free from illusions regarding the ability of the 
church to mold the economic, political and international 
life of our time. The frank acknowledgment of our own 
weakness and impotence will drive us back on the true and 
unchanging source of the strength and hope of the church. 
It is in God’s power to enable the church now and in the 
coming days to utter a word which will not be without 
effect on the life and conduct of Christians, and will not 
be unheard even by a secularized, indifferent and hostile 
world. 


4 Adventures of Ideas, p. 205. 


V 

THE CHURCH: 

SOME NECESSARY DISTINCTIONS 

N othing has done more to confuse the discussion of the 
function of the church in society and of its relation to 
social and political issues than the habitual use of the gen¬ 
eral term “ church ” to cover a variety of quite different 
meanings. 

It is not necessary to refer again to the theological dif¬ 
ferences in the understanding of the church, to which our 
attention has already been directed. These must be in our 
minds throughout the discussion. Our purpose in this 
chapter is to focus attention on three distinctions of the 
highest importance in relation to the rest of our inquiry. 

1. THE CHURCH OF FAITH AND THE CHURCH AS 
INSTITUTION 

We want, first, to call to mind, without committing our¬ 
selves to any particular theological interpretation of the 
facts, a distinction which in some form is recognized by all 
churches. The church as it exists empirically has a double 
aspect. On the one hand it is the body of Christ, composed 
of those who are united to him by a living faith and a loyal 
and active discipleship; and on the other hand it finds its 
embodiment in a divine-human society, organized for the 
purposes of worship, teaching, mutual edification and serv¬ 
ice, and drawing into its membership from a variety of mo¬ 
tives many whose adherence is largely formal and carries 
with it no commitment to the obligations of the Christian 

IOI 


102 The Church and Its Function in Society 

life. The distinction which Troeltsch made between the 
“ church ” type and the “ sect ” type is familiar. The em¬ 
phasis of the church type is on the gospel as something ob¬ 
jectively given which exists prior to any act or decision of 
the individual and is embodied in the life of an institution, 
and on the universality of the gospel; the emphasis of the 
sect type is on the act of personal faith and decision of the 
individual. But the distinction we would make here ap¬ 
plies to what according to Troeltsch’s definition are sects, 
as well as to churches. Most of the bodies which began 
as sects — i.e., as companies of professed believers with 
strict internal discipline and standards sharply differenti¬ 
ated from the world — have come with their growth in 
numbers to include many nominal and indifferent mem¬ 
bers and have relaxed their tension with the world. Dr. 
Paul Douglass, in the paper already referred to, writes that 
today 

the American church is obviously no longer a collection of sects 
separated from, and at war with, society. Indeed it has become 
a segment of society quite like the rest. Still less in the persons 
of its individual members is it a collection of saints, that is, of 
individuals inwardly distinguishable from the mass by a unique 
faith or by the peculiar graces of Christian character. 

Where a national church has come to include a number 
of persons whose adherence is purely nominal and whose 
membership carries no sense of obligation, or where a so¬ 
ciety professing the Christian name becomes little more 
than “ a quasi-religious and quasi-cultural enterprise, which 
is frequently content to add a pious phrase to whatever 
values, cultural, social and political, the community may be 
pursuing,” 1 it has ceased to bear, in this inclusive sense, 
any kind of resemblance to the church of the New Testa¬ 
ment. All existing churches are in greater or less degree 
1 Reinhold Niebuhr in the Christian Century, November 4, 1936. 


The Church: Some Necessary Distinctions 103 

mixed bodies. They cannot exclude from membership 
those who are in need of instruction, education, help and 
healing. There is an inescapable tension between the holi¬ 
ness of the church and the universality of its mission and 
ministry. The church is not an invisible community of 
elect spirits. It has an actual existence in history and is 
real only in its actual historical embodiments. But we can¬ 
not attribute to these mixed bodies the characteristics of 
the true church of Christ, or expect from them in their cor¬ 
porate capacity the action which can rightly be demanded 
from those who have committed themselves wholeheartedly 
to Christian discipleship. We dare not overlook the fact 
that the church as an organized society may become per¬ 
verted and corrupt to such a degree as to deny in its life and 
practice the faith which it professes and to be changed into 
the very opposite of what it claims to be. We can never 
forget the unceasing tension between the divine and the 
human elements in the church. To call that the church 
which is not the church, and to include in our thought of 
the church what is in reality a denial of the truth of Christ, 
is impiety. From the tension of which we have spoken there 
is no escape. The church cannot cease to be an institution, 
nor can it limit the universality of its ministries. Within 
the church as an organized society the true church has to 
be continually re-created and to find new embodiment in 
the faith and obedience and devotion of those who hear and 
respond to the voice of Christ. 

2. THE WORSHIPING CONGREGATION AND LIFE 
IN THE WORLD 

A second distinction of fundamental importance is that 
between the church as a society organized for the purposes 
of worship and teaching, and the life of Christians in the 
world. It is the paradox of religion that it is at one and 


104 The Church and Its Function in Society 

the same time concerned with the whole of life and has also 
its specific and distinctive obligations, responsibilities and 
forms of expression. It is on the one hand a surrender of 
the whole life with all its activities to the will of God; and 
it finds expression, on the other hand, in a conscious and 
deliberate turning of the mind to God in prayer, thanks¬ 
giving and meditation. It is a fundamental weakness in 
the present relation of the church to society that we have 
allowed our conception of the church to be determined 
almost entirely by the second of these two sides of the Chris¬ 
tian life. 

The difficulty has its roots in the fact that the church as 
an organized society is distinguished from other forms of 
human association by its concern with worship and teach¬ 
ing. As we shall see in a later chapter, these are not sim¬ 
ply particular forms of human activity, but acts constitut¬ 
ing the being of the church. But it is disastrous if the truth 
that the ministry of the Word and the administration of 
the sacraments constitute the church and that it is the per¬ 
formance of these acts that differentiates it from other hu¬ 
man activities, leads us to suppose that worship is the whole 
or characteristic business of the church. The church is a 
worshiping community. But it is at the same time a com¬ 
pany of redeemed persons transplanted into a new sphere 
of life in which their actions are determined by new prin¬ 
ciples. The God whom the church worships is a God who 
has a will and a purpose for the world. The business of 
the church is to do God’s will, and the place where it has 
to be done is in the world. It is a business not only for Sun¬ 
days but also for weekdays. The church as an organized 
society is not an end in itself, though we are always tend¬ 
ing in practice, if not in theory, to make it an end in itself. 
It exists for the sake of the world, and it is fulfilling the 
purpose of its existence in the measure that through its 
worship it is alive and operative in the world. 


The Church: Some Necessary Distinctions 105 

In relation to the issues before the Oxford Conference 
nothing could be plainer than this, that if, as it has done 
in the past, the Christian faith is in the present and future 
to bring about changes in the thought, habits and practices 
of society, it can do so only through being the living, work¬ 
ing faith of multitudes of lay men and women conducting 
the ordinary affairs of life. The only way in which the 
Christian faith can affect business or politics is by shaping 
the convictions and determining the actions of those en¬ 
gaged in business and politics. It remains inoperative and 
unproductive except in so far as it becomes a principle of 
action in the lives of those who are actually carrying on the 
work of the world and ordering its course in one direction 
or another. Obvious as this truth is, and certain as it is to 
receive assent when stated, it does not, in fact, fill any large 
place in the picture called up in our minds when we use 
the word “ church.” The word does not in the least sug¬ 
gest the work of the world. It suggests Sunday and what 
happens on Sunday. We can hardly exaggerate the loss 
resulting from this restriction of meaning. 

One result of such limitation in our thought of the 
meaning of the term is that when we discuss the witness and 
action of the church in relation to society our minds run 
at once to action by ecclesiastical assemblies or by the clergy. 
We do not stop to think that incomparably more important 
than either of these in its effect on the life of society is what 
ordinary Christian people are doing day by day in the work¬ 
ing week. To take but one illustration: Every modern state 
has a vast and expanding system of social services. In the 
operation of these services hundreds or thousands or tens 
of thousands of Christian men and women must be en¬ 
gaged. What they can accomplish for social betterment in 
the ordinary fulfillment of their daily tasks must far out¬ 
weigh anything that can be undertaken by organized church 
agencies. But we do not think of the former work as hav- 


io 6 The Church and Its Function in Society 

ing anything to do with the church. It has somehow come 
about that an immense fund of Christian action and witness 
has lost association with the idea of the church. 

Religion has come to be thought of as one department 
among others, instead of as something that is concerned 
with the whole of life. To the man in the street religion is 
one of the many special pursuits followed by people who 
have a bent in that direction. A false dichotomy dominates 
the whole of our present thinking and colors our ordinary 
speech. We refer, for example, to prayer and worship as 
an “ entering into the presence of God ” — as though God 
were not present in every moment of our lives and in every 
action we perform. “ To go into the church ” is a phrase 
often used to describe a vocation to the Christian ministry. 
When we speak of the church as fulfilling this or that func¬ 
tion in the social sphere we tend instinctively to picture the 
clergy acting as individuals in that sphere, or assemblies 
in which the clergy predominate taking some action. To 
a far greater extent than we ordinarily realize our whole 
thought about the church has become clericalized. If the 
church is to be an effective force in the social and political 
sphere our first task is to laicize our thought about it. We 
stand before a great historic task — the task of restoring the 
lost unity between worship and work. 

3. DIFFERENCES OF FORMS OF ACTION 

There is a third distinction which is very seldom made 
in discussions of the relation of the church to society, but 
which is essential for any profitable consideration of the 
subject. The failure to make it clearly and decisively has 
been one of the principal hindrances in the way of a true 
and fruitful understanding of the functions of the church 
in the social and political spheres. It is the distinction be¬ 
tween the persons, or classes of persons, by whom any pro- 


The Church: Some Necessary Distinctions 107 

posed action is to be taken. Action is always action by 
persons, acting individually or collectively. In regard to 
any intended action, therefore, it is always necessary to ask 
by what persons that action is to be carried out. Lack 
of clearness on this point means evasion of responsibility. 
“ Action by the church ” may in practice mean several en¬ 
tirely distinct things. It may mean action imposed or rec¬ 
ommended by the authorities of the church; it may be in¬ 
tended to refer primarily to action by the clergy; or it may 
mean action by the Christian laity, either in the faithful 
discharge of the general duties of their vocations as Chris¬ 
tians or in and by a particular association formed for the 
achievement of specific social and political ends, the pur¬ 
suit of which they believe to be demanded by loyalty to 
the Christian profession. All these forms of action are quite 
different from one another, and failure to distinguish be¬ 
tween them, and the unreflective use of a general term 
“ church ” to cover wholly distinct forms of action, has 
caused much confusion about the function of the church 
in society. We fail to distinguish the question of what 
Christians can do from the quite different question of what 
the church as a society organized for the purpose of wor¬ 
ship and teaching can or ought to do. We limit our possi¬ 
bilities by thinking of them in terms of a body in which 
the leadership and initiative are largely in the hands of the 
clergy, instead of in terms of the activities of the Christian 
men and women who are engaged in the practical affairs of 
the world. 

If it could be secured that in the future no one should 
ever demand or recommend that the “ church ” do some¬ 
thing without defining what concrete steps he has in view, 
and on whose shoulders in particular the responsibility for 
what is proposed is to be laid, a far-reaching service would 
be rendered to the Christian cause. 


VI 

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 


O ur understanding of the function of the church in so¬ 
ciety and of its relation to the community and to the 
state depends in the last resort on our doctrine, or our 
undefined and unconscious assumptions, regarding the re¬ 
lation of the church to the world. 

The preparatory work for the Oxford Conference 
brought forth such a variety of divergent and conflicting 
views on all the subjects studied that it is difficult to find 
one’s way through the maze. It may help in some degree 
to clarify the issues if an attempt is made to distinguish 
some of the major differences of view on the subject of the 
relation of the church and the world which have manifested 
themselves in Christian history and still today divide Chris¬ 
tians into opposing camps. A full and satisfying treatment 
of the questions with which this chapter deals would re¬ 
quire the labor of many years and a wealth of knowledge 
to which the writers can make no claim. We can do little 
more than point to important issues to which Christian 
thought must be directed with increasing vigor and deter¬ 
mination in the years to come. But without some pre¬ 
liminary understanding of these issues and of the differ¬ 
ences in the conceptions of them the church cannot come 
to grips with its real tasks. Discussions about the relations 
of church, community and state will remain superficial, and 
those who take part in the debate will find themselves at 
cross-purposes with one another. 

No scheme of classification can be entirely satisfactory, 
108 


The Church and the World 109 

especially when limitations of space permit of only the most 
cursory treatment. The views here distinguished for pur¬ 
poses of thought are not mutually exclusive. The lines fre¬ 
quently cross, and on particular issues there are often group¬ 
ings which cut across the main divisions. A fuller and more 
detailed exposition would disclose many strange bedfellows, 
and on certain questions the representatives of a particular 
tradition are sometimes found in surprising company. 

We shall set down the different views side by side in 
order that they may mutually criticize one another. Our 
purpose is not to decide which interpretation and attitude 
are right, but to see in each the truth after which it is striv¬ 
ing and to recognize at the same time those elements of in¬ 
completeness or weakness which prevent other Christians 
from giving it their assent. The differences which the sur¬ 
vey will disclose are so great and deep that the first reaction 
may well be that no basis of agreement can be found and 
that there is little possibility even of mutual understand¬ 
ing. Historical controversy has often driven the upholders 
of a particular view to adopt an absolutist position and to 
sharpen the opposition to an extent which prevents them 
from recognizing any elements of truth in the view they are 
combating. There is a strong probability, however, that 
any view which has won the assent of Christian minds has 
some root in Christian experience and attempts to express 
some element in Christian truth, and that, up to a point at 
least, even the sharpest divergences spring from the desire 
to emphasize different aspects of a reality too rich and many- 
sided to be comprehended in any single interpretation. 
And even if, on some crucial issues, the opposing convic¬ 
tions seem not so much to supplement as flatly to contradict 
each other and to confront us with the responsibility of 
clear decision between two irreconcilable alternatives, we 
may perhaps still gain from the view which we reject some 


no The Church and Its Function in Society 

corrective of a too narrow interpretation of that to which 
we commit ourselves. If we are prepared to listen with pa¬ 
tience to those views which most arouse our antagonism and 
to try to understand them, we may discover that the con¬ 
ceptions which we find least congenial have much to con¬ 
tribute to the enlargement of our understanding of spiritual 
realities. 

The questions we shall consider in this chapter are not, 
as some may think, theological abstractions, of interest 
only to professional theologians. They are involved in 
every practical question with which the church today 
has to deal. We have only to let our minds dwell for a 
moment on the history of the church during the past 
nineteen hundred years to realize that the question of 
the relation of the church and the world leads us straight 
to the springs of Christian action. The various attempts 
to answer this question have molded the whole history 
of the western world. The gigantic struggle between the 
papacy and the empire which dominated the Middle Ages, 
affected the lives of generations of men and left its traces 
on subsequent European history, hinged on the question 
of the relation of the church to the world. The flight 
from the world of the Christian mystics and the attitude 
of the Christian groups which, in all periods of Christian 
history, have laid the whole emphasis on individual sal¬ 
vation, offer another solution of the problem. The Re¬ 
formers of the sixteenth century in their vehement re¬ 
pudiation of the solution of the Middle Ages claimed 
to be restoring the biblical conception of the relation be¬ 
tween the church and the world. The historical develop¬ 
ments to which this claim gave rise, which took different 
forms in countries under the influence of Lutheranism 
and Calvinism respectively, are too well known to call for 
mention. In our own day the social and political doc- 


The Church and the World hi 

trines embodied in the papal encyclicals, the social gospel 
which seeks to provide a Christian solution for all the 
needs and problems of society, the Barthian theology which 
utters an emphatic protest against any confusion of the 
gospel with social aspirations and utopias, are each rooted 
in a particular understanding of the relation of the church 
and the world. It is this same issue, moreover, which is 
at stake in the struggle between Christian faith and the 
new religions which claim to know the real needs of 
human society and desire, for the achievement of their own 
purposes, to absorb or to suppress Christianity. 

1. THE BIBLICAL VIEW 

Before we consider the different views of the relation of 
the church to the world which have emerged in Christian 
history, we may recall the essential features of the biblical 
attitude toward the world. This attitude is expressed in 
three main convictions, which differentiate it from all 
other systems of religion or philosophy. 

In the first place, the world is God’s creation. God is the 
Lord of both nature and history. As created by God the 
world is good. It is God’s world, to be received and en¬ 
joyed as his gift. “ To us there is one God, the Father, of 
whom are all things.” Every creature of God is good. 
“ Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above.” 
There is in the New Testament no trace of the dualism 
which depreciates the material in contrast with the spir¬ 
itual. 

Second, the world is corrupted by sin. Hence men need 
to be saved from the world. The world has its dangers for 
the soul. Its attractions and interests draw men’s hearts 
away from the love of God, which is the supreme good. 
Christ bade his followers to lay up treasure not on earth 
but in heaven. Christians are warned not to love the 


112 The Church and Its Function in Society 

world nor the things that are in the world; to set their 
minds on the things that are above, not on the things that 
are upon the earth; to use the world, but not to abuse it. 
They are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. To gain the 
whole world cannot make up for the loss of one’s own soul. 

The world is not only something which may be over¬ 
valued. It is dominated by the forces of evil and is in 
definite opposition to God’s kingdom. It hates Christ 
and his followers. It lies in the evil one. The friendship 
of the world is enmity against God. Thus the attitude of 
Christians toward the world is one of acute opposition. 
The cross of Christ is a condemnation of the values of the 
world. Through it the world has been crucified to the 
Christian and he to the world. Christians are baptized 
into Christ’s death in order that they may walk in newness 
of life. They are called to mortify their members which 
are on earth, to put away the old and put on the new. 
They are not to be fashioned according to this world, for 
the fashion or scheme of this world is passing away. In the 
world Christians must expect to have tribulation. Christ 
sends his disciples as sheep into the midst of wolves. 

Third, God’s purpose is to save the world. It is the 
object of his redeeming love. Hence the church has a 
mission to the world. As Christ was sent by the Father into 
the world, so he sends his disciples. They are to be the 
light of the world, the salt of the earth. They are ambas¬ 
sadors on behalf of Christ, beseeching men to be recon¬ 
ciled to God, who in Christ was reconciling the world unto 
himself. They are not to be overcome of evil but to over¬ 
come evil with good. The ultimate victory is assured, .for 
Christ has already overcome the world. The church is a 
rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, the 
body of Christ which fulfills his sufferings, fights his battles 
and shares his victories. The Christian can declare that 


The Church and the World 113 

he is “ more than conqueror.” This note of hope and as¬ 
surance is characteristic of the whole New Testament. It 
is based not on confidence in personal achievements but on 
the invincibility of God’s purpose of redemption. “ What¬ 
soever is begotten of God overcometh the world; and this is 
the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.” 

In these fundamental convictions the problem of the re¬ 
lation of the church to the world has its origin and source. 
They give rise to a tension which can never be fully re¬ 
solved in this earthly life. The world has to be both denied 
and possessed. In Christianity both world-affirmation and 
world-denial are raised to the greatest heights. There is 
for Christians the thrill of those who have entered into’ the 
liberty of the sons of God, and who know that all things 
are theirs and that all things work together for good to 
them that love God. On the other hand, for the sake of the 
kingdom of God they are called to sacrifice all that they 
most prize, including, if need be, life itself. 

2. NATURE AND SUPERNATURE 

The most massive, coherent and fully worked out at¬ 
tempt in Christian history to solve the problem of the rela¬ 
tion between the church and the world is that embodied in 
the system of Thomas Aquinas. Through its influence on 
the life and activities of the Roman Catholic Church, of 
whose attitude it still remains the acknowledged and domi¬ 
nant interpretation, it possesses a historical significance 
which can hardly be overestimated. In modified forms its 
fundamental conceptions have exerted a powerful influ¬ 
ence in other churches also, and have in many subtle and 
indirect ways affected the general Christian attitude toward 
the world. We must be content to indicate a few of the 
main features of this view of the world, without taking ac¬ 
count of the existence of other tendencies of thought 


ii4 The Church and Its Function in Society 

within the Roman Catholic Church or following out the 
variations of these leading ideas which find expression in 
other churches. 

Etienne Gilson, in his Gifford Lectures on The Spirit 
of Medieval Philosophy, holds that Christian optimism 
is a fundamental characteristic of the Catholic attitude 
toward the world. The unshakable foundation of this 
optimism, as it finds expression in the fathers and in the 
thinkers of the Middle Ages, is the first chapter of Genesis, 
which declares that God created the world and that be¬ 
cause he created it, it is good. In spite of its fallen state 
the world still declares the glory of its Creator. There is 
indeed no Christianity without hatred of the world ( con- 
temptus saeculi ), but hatred of the world is not the same 
thing as hatred of being. On the contrary, it is hatred of 
not-being . 1 

This statement gives expression to the fundamental con¬ 
viction of Catholicism about the relation of the church 
and the world. Both are manifestations of the eternal 
being of God, though they manifest that being in different 
degrees. The problem of the right relations between 
church and world is thus ultimately a problem of on¬ 
tology. The principle that the concrete problems of the 
social and ethical life are to be interpreted, in the last 
resort, in terms of a metaphysic of being is of decisive im¬ 
portance for the traditional Catholic attitude toward the 
world. 

The world has its place in a firmly fixed and unalterable 
hierarchy of being whose source and culminating reality 
are in God. In this created world God has implanted 
the law of his own being, the eternal law which embraces 
the universe and controls history. This is not, however, 
to conceive of the world in a static and unhistorical sense 

1 L’Esprit de la philosophic medievale , pp. 111-32. 


The Church and the World 115 

as lacking in life and movement. It is one of the central 
assertions of the Thomist philosophy that the created 
world is in ascending movement toward the Good. All 
life has a purpose toward which it strives. All these 
several purposes are directed to the final goal of partici¬ 
pation in the perfect and inexpressible glory and majesty 
of God. 

This massive endeavor to arrive at a clear and unified 
interpretation of the world is not, however, monistic. If 
it were it would be a denial of the essential Christian 
convictions of the radical nature of evil and of man’s need 
of redemption and would no longer be a Christian inter¬ 
pretation of reality. The ontological continuity through¬ 
out the world, which consists in universal participation 
in the eternal law of God, is a gradual one. Between the 
perfect being of God and the not-being of evil there are 
innumerable degrees of reality. It is this conviction that 
underlies the Thomist distinction between nature and 
supernature — a distinction central to the system’s whole 
interpretation of the church and its relation to the world 
and that which determines to a large extent the social 
and political attitudes of the Roman Catholic Church. 

It would be wholly wrong to suppose that this inter¬ 
pretation of the world lacks understanding of the cross 
and of divine judgment. Both the human and the sub¬ 
human world are involved in sin. But the reign of evil 
over the hearts and institutions of men has not led to a 
radical and general perversion of human nature, still less 
to the destruction of God’s good creation. The natural 
world has lost its vital and essential relation to the super¬ 
natural realities. Its life has been wounded and impaired 
and thrown into disorder. Evil is, in the deepest sense 
of the word, disorder — a departure from the eternal plan 
of the Creator operative in the nature of things. It is 


116 The Church and Its Function in Society 

not primarily rebellion against God conceived as a per¬ 
sonal Being acting toward men in a personal way. 

It is in full accord with this whole outlook that the 
natural world and its various spheres and activities should 
be regarded as possessing a relative autonomy. For while 
the world in its actual existence and historical forms of 
expression has departed from the plan of Providence, yet 
its essential nature remains indestructible. The common 
man in his various callings can himself, at least in a cer¬ 
tain measure, know and decide what is good and bad — 
what accords or does not accord with the divine ordering 
of life. There is thus a relative autonomy belonging to 
such spheres as those of marriage, economics or philosophy 
— an autonomy which cannot without penalty be denied 
or disregarded, and which even the Creator cannot alter 
since he has once for all established it and given it validity 
till the end of time. This independence is not, however, 
absolute. It would be a misrepresentation of the Thomist 
conception to treat its doctrine of the natural world in 
isolation. Nature and supernature complete each other 
and are in a continuous state of tension. The church 
builds on what is given in the natural world. In the 
classical formulation of Thomas Aquinas, grace does not 
destroy nature but presupposes and perfects it. In this 
assertion is implied the claim, which the Roman Catholic 
Church cannot avoid making, to authority over the whole 
of human society — not only over the souls and hearts 
of men but also over social and political affairs. The 
church has a direct responsibility, given it by God, for 
the ordering of all human affairs so far as questions of 
faith and morals are involved. Though every man pos¬ 
sesses a certain insight into the true order of things he 
lacks the moral power to accomplish what he knows to 
be right, and consequently his efforts need to be rein- 


The Church and the World 117 

forced by grace. As the sole depository of supernatural 
truths and the sole dispenser of sacramental grace the 
church is indispensable to the welfare of society. An ex¬ 
clusive claim over the world is inherent in the view we 
are considering. 

The conception of nature and supernature is not merely 
a theological doctrine. It is a source of spiritual strength 
and nourishment to devout Roman Catholics. One may 
cite in illustration the frequency with which Baron von 
Hiigel recurs to it in his writings. He is never tired of 
describing “ its quite unexhausted truth and applicability,” 
and is convinced that a revival of religion in the modern 
world “ depends upon a renewed grasp of this immensely 
resourceful outlook.” 2 The recognition that God is the 
author of, and is variously reflected in, both nature and 
supernature creates a polarity, a tension, in human life. 
It preserves the balance of religion. God is revealed both 
in the beauties of external nature and the honesties and 
decencies of average domestic and political life, and also 
in the supernatural heroism of the forgiveness of enemies 
and the eager acceptance of suffering. This recognition 
is a continual aid to prayer. It provides both a tension 
and a relaxation. For God is envisaged both as the God 
of nature, the source of all that is wholesome and homely, 
and as the God of supernature, the source of all that is 
ardent and heroic . 3 

The Roman Catholic view of the relation of the church 
and the world as developed in the Thomist system is an 
extraordinarily powerful and impressive attempt to hold 
in combination the otherworldly and the this-worldly ends 
of human life. In the words of Troeltsch, quoted by Von 

2 Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion, First Series, pp. 
xi, 150. 

3 Ibid., Second Series, pp. 218-19. 


118 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Hiigel , 4 it is just in this combination that there are to be 
found 

the richness, the breadth and the freedom, but also the painful 
interior tensions and the difficult problems, of this civilization. 
. . . Christianity has filled the this-world ends with a far 
mightier and deeper life than they ever possessed before, and 
has nevertheless made any return to the old pagan self-limita¬ 
tion of the soul to these ends and to nature an impossibility or 
an affectation for us. 

The spheres of economics, politics, technology, science 
and art are recognized as possessing each its own logic 
and its own direction, while the religious end gives to 
them an ultimate unity of meaning and redeems them 
from shallowness and futility. It does this by insisting 
on the soul’s dedication to a holy, living God, “ who, 
whilst containing within himself the source and meaning 
of all spiritual-personal life, proposes to this life, as its 
highest task, the full elaboration and elevation of its per¬ 
sonality to a communion with his will.” And this combi¬ 
nation of the service of the otherworldly end and of this- 
worldly ends is in practice realized through a variety of 
callings according to men’s dispositions and gifts. Some 
are called to devote themselves predominately to the fur¬ 
therance of human ends in the service of the state, of in¬ 
dustry, of science or of art. Others are called to dedicate 
themselves primarily to the religious end in the priesthood, 
in missionary service, in the performance of works of mercy 
or in the contemplative life. 

The differences between the Thomist doctrine of the 
relation of church and world and the various attitudes 
adopted by Protestantism will engage our attention in 
later sections. But we may note here the inseparable con¬ 
nection between natural law, as understood in the Tho- 

4 Ibid., First Series, pp. 166-67. 


The Church and the World 119 

mist system, and an authoritative church. While the nat¬ 
ural man can recognize the claims of the moral law, owing 
to his sin and ignorance he must remain uncertain in re¬ 
gard to its content. The natural moral law requires the 
interpretation of an authoritative church. Without such 
a church its contents either remain sub-Christian or be¬ 
come some form of religious individualism. Moreover, 
man cannot by his unaided powers carry out the teachings 
of the natural law; he needs the restraining influence of a 
powerful church and the support of the means of grace 
which it administers. It is the church which must re¬ 
establish and maintain the natural order in the world. 
The Thomist doctrine of natural law seems to lead in the 
end inevitably to clericalism. 

3. THE DEIFICATION OF THE WORLD 

A view which, though it has adherents in other churches, 
is characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox churches , 6 finds 
a key to the understanding of the relation of the church 
to the world in the doctrine of the theosis, or deification 
of the world. In its emphasis on the transfiguration of 
the world and on the cosmic range of redemption it has 
affinities with the Thomist conception. This similarity 
is, however, mainly an outward one, since Orthodoxy is 
sharply opposed to the legalistic, moralistic and rational 
elements in Roman Catholic doctrine. It tends toward 
a mystical identity of church and world rather than toward 
a hierarchical view of lower and higher orders in the 
framework of a continuity of being. The dogma of the 
incarnation is in this view the central truth. Not justi¬ 
fication but transfiguration is the essential meaning of 
Christianity. 

The great apostle in the nineteenth century of the con- 
5 Cf. pp. 21 ff. 


120 The Church and Its Function in Society 


ception of divine humanity was the Russian philosopher 
Soloviev. According to his teaching man is predestined 
to be the universal messiah whose task it is to redeem 
the world from chaos by uniting it with God. Man is 
the priest of God in so far as he sacrifices his own will, 
his human selfishness. He is king of the subhuman world, 
subjecting it to the divine law. And he is the prophet of 
ultimate unity when he aims at “ the absolute unity of 
existence and progressively realizes it by the joint work 
of grace and free will, thereby gradually transforming 
nature separated from God into the universal and com¬ 
plete integration in him which it originally possessed.” 6 
Jesus Christ is the spiritual and absolute man. In him 
God was fully incarnate, and a new stage began in the 
process of the transfiguration and deification of the world 
through the union of God and man. 

Thus Orthodoxy conceives of the church not as an in¬ 
stitution but as a new life in Christ and with Christ, “ a 
unity of life with all creation, communion with all human 
beings.” 7 Its task in relation to the world is to penetrate 
it from within. The world is transformed by the sacra¬ 
mental activities of the church. It is not the task of the 
church to interfere with social life or with politics, but the 
more it draws its members into its sacramental commun¬ 
ion the more will its influence be felt in the world. The 
church is the soul of the world, and the more it grows the 
more is it able to assimilate elements of the world to itself. 
This is what is meant by the everlasting act of the incar¬ 
nation. “ By means of this interior action, a whole world 
of Christian ‘ values * is spread abroad in the state, in 
economics, in civilization; thus is formed what is called 
the spirit of an epoch.” 8 

6 La Russie et Veglise universelle, quoted in Pfleger, Wrestlers with 
Christ, pp. 241-42. 

7 Bulgakov, The Orthodox Church, p. 106. 8 Ibid., p. 170. 


The Church and the World 


121 


4. OPPOSITION BETWEEN CHURCH AND WORLD 

The Thomist view, as we have seen, holds firmly to the 
unity of God as Redeemer and Creator, to the consistency 
of the divine will manifested in the whole of the created 
world, to the essential connection between the church 
and human affairs, and to the responsibility of the church 
for the world. The protest against this doctrine by the 
churches of the sixteenth century Reformation may be 
summed up in the words of Anselm of Canterbury: " Non- 
dum considerasti quanti ponderis sit peccatum” Sin does 
not mean merely a defect in being, a departure from 
the true nature of things, a weakness of the will and a 
darkening of the understanding, but an enslavement of 
the heart of man by the dark powers of evil, a severance 
of the personal relationship with God and with one’s 
neighbor, and as a result an irremediable disruption and 
conflict in human life as a whole. The whole world 
lies in the evil one. This assertion has a radical and total 
meaning. Not only wrongs deliberately committed and 
social chaos, but also the noblest morality and the highest 
religious aspirations bear witness to man’s lost condition. 
Everything is subject to the corrupting influence of the 
self-seeking will which refuses to surrender itself unre¬ 
servedly to the love of the Creator. There is no way of 
salvation which leads from man to God, no ascending 
scale of moral effort and religious practice by which man 
can restore the lost personal fellowship with God. The 
incarnation of the Son of God led to the cross, and it is 
in this fact that the fundamental character of the world 
is disclosed. The world is contrary to God and to his 
anointed. The church, as the bearer of the gospel of God’s 
forgiveness and as the home of the new fellowship of love 
which God himself creates, stands in sharp contrast over 
against the world. 


122 The Church and Its Function in Society 

This sense of the profound opposition between church 
and world, resulting from all that the crucifixion implies, 
has been in many forms of Protestantism a central and 
living conviction which has determined the attitude of 
Christians in all their personal and social relations. The 
churches on the continent of Europe, in the light of their 
experiences since the war, have gained a new understand¬ 
ing of the problem that is involved — a problem felt by 
Marcion with such intensity that he was driven to re¬ 
gard God the Redeemer and God the Creator as irrecon¬ 
cilable opponents. 

It is in the tragic drama of sin and redemption that 
the ultimate meaning of human life is disclosed. Justifica¬ 
tion by faith alone is in this view the heart and substance 
of the Christian gospel. Salvation is the initiative of the 
free, sovereign love of God. The emancipation of man 
from subjection to the dark, destructive powers of evil and 
his deliverance from the prison house of his egocentricity 
into a life of sonship and personal fellowship with God — 
these are the supreme realities which constitute the sub¬ 
stance and power of the gospel. The church is the place 
where this active, self-giving, sovereign love of God is 
proclaimed, a community of sinful men in which this love 
is the ruling power. An immense tension is thus intro¬ 
duced into the relation between this radically new fellow¬ 
ship of love and the life of the world. There has resulted 
a tendency, prominent in Lutheranism though not con¬ 
fined to it, to regard the church and the world as two 
separate and distinct spheres. 

The traditional Lutheran understanding of the problem 
of the church and the world is bound up with the ques¬ 
tion of the relation between the law and the gospel. It 
has already been pointed out that the understanding of 


The Church and the World 123 

the gospel as the restoration of the severed personal re¬ 
lation between God and man is incompatible with the 
doctrine of nature and supernature. This applies espe¬ 
cially to the understanding of the law as an immanent 
divine law implanted in man’s constitution, through which 
by moral effort aided by sacramental grace he can step by 
step arrive at the final goal of mystical union with God. 
This belief was regarded by the Reformers as a deception 
of Satan. The law and the works to which it prompts 
only confirm man in his self-righteousness and in his be¬ 
lief in his natural goodness or moral perfectibility, or 
alternately drive him to despair. The psychological situ¬ 
ation of the world is consequently one of oscillation be¬ 
tween pride and despair. What Christ accomplishes in 
his church is the redemption of man from the law and 
its works. The existence of the church in the world is 
not, therefore, the confirmation of an existing moral law 
the fulfillment of which becomes possible through the 
infusion of new energy, but a new and marvelous mani¬ 
festation of spontaneous love, c 

One form in which this view of the sharp opposition 
between church and world has found expression — not 
only among Lutherans but in other churches also — is 
in an individualistic type of Christianity which regards 
the gospel as having to do only with the salvation of 
individual souls and looks on participation in the affairs 
of the world as irrevelant or questionable. The church 
is thought of as an ark in which saved souls may find 
refuge from a world that is doomed to destruction. The 
influence of the church on the community is restricted to 
the manifestation of love in private relations with indi¬ 
viduals and in the ministering to the needs of the sick and 
the poor. 


124 The Church and Its Function in Society 

The prevailing tendency in Lutheranism has been, as 
we have already seen , 9 to regard the spheres of the tem¬ 
poral order as having their own standards and norms. 
The task of the church is to inculcate in its members the 
duty of fulfilling their responsibilities in the world and 
of obeying the divinely appointed authorities. The church 
has no right to interfere in worldly matters or to establish 
laws for the world. The world will remain world till the 
coming of Christ. 

In the recent writings of Professor Gogarten, Professor 
Hirsch and others, the traditional Lutheran doctrine has 
been given a fresh interpretation in what looks like a new 
version of the doctrine of natural law. Stress is laid on 
the independence of the world as against the church. This 
is not to be understood as meaning that the world is in¬ 
dependent of God. On the contrary, in the events of his¬ 
tory and in the immanent laws which determine the 
working of the various forms of human association, the 
will of the Creator is revealed and manifested. A sharp 
distinction is made between God as Redeemer and God 
as Creator. Christian love is not directly applicable to 
the life of society. Social and political life is a sphere 
outside the competence of the church. Life in the fellow¬ 
ship of the church is a source of new power and energy. 
The church is a source of fresh inspiration, but it creates 
no new aims or norms for personal and social action differ¬ 
ent from those of the national ethos. The order of society 
and the determination of its purposes is the task of the 
political authority and of human reason. In unquestion¬ 
ing trust in the hidden working of Providence in the 
course of history, the Christian in public affairs acts by 
the same norms as non-Christians, nor can he do other¬ 
wise, since the connection between the will of the Creator 
9 Pp. 60 ff. 


The Church and the World 125 

and the will of the Redeemer is hidden and will be revealed 
only in the world to come. With varying degrees of 
consistency the upholders of this view deny to the gospel 
any universal claim or specific content. The strength of 
their position lies in a deep sense of the stubbornness and 
inertia of social evil. This view stands at the opposite 
pole from a superficial optimism which attempts by moral 
effort to transform the world into the kingdom of God. 

It is more particularly in the Volk or nation that these 
thinkers find the decisive expression of the divine will for 
conduct in this earthly life. In loyal obedience to the 
earthly authorities constituted by God a man can best 
live and serve his neighbor. The nations are the instru¬ 
ments of God’s purpose in history and the concrete em¬ 
bodiments of his will. Unconditional fellowship with God 
imposes on the Christian the unconditional obligation 
to be utterly faithful to the earthly life with all the obli¬ 
gations which it involves. This view makes it possible 
to regard the national political order as hallowed by God, 
and yet at the same time to regard it equally clearly as 
a mundane and transitory matter. The grave danger of 
such an attitude, by no means confined to any one country, 
is that the church may sink to the level of being nothing 
more than an instrument of national policy. 

It must be made clear, however, that there are Luther¬ 
ans who repudiate utterly these doctrines and regard them 
as highly dangerous. Dr. Werner Wiesner, in the forth¬ 
coming volume Christian Faith and the Common Life, 
rejects decisively the whole doctrine of the orders’ being 
in their historical givenness a manifestation of the will of 
God. The Bible knows no such doctrine. Its reference 
is always to the will and law of God. All institutions 
are human institutions and derive their authority neither 
from themselves nor from being part of a divine plan. 


126 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Law possesses authority only in so far as it is the expression 
of God's law. The norm for the spheres of the common 
life is found not in natural law but only in the biblical 
revelation. This norm it is the task of the church to pro¬ 
claim. Whether or not its message falls on deaf ears is 
not its concern. That must be left in the hands of God. 

5. RELAXATION OF THE TENSION 

Those upon whose minds has broken the light of the 
mystery and miracle of the cross as the supreme reality 
of human existence cannot henceforward view the world 
otherwise than in its glow. The cross stands at the great 
and impassable dividing line between the natural and the 
spiritual. The goods of this world can have only a relative 
and transient value. 

Yet over against this overwhelming act of redemption 
of God, with its transvaluation of all values, must be set 
the work of God as Creator — the dear earth, the colors 
and shapes of things, the glimpses of entrancing beauty, 
the wonders and fascination of nature and of the habits 
of living things, the unceasing and absorbing activity of 
man. Has God, who created man to replenish and subdue 
the earth, who gave him craftsmanship and skill and made 
him “ cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, 
and in iron,” 10 who implanted in him the genius of dis¬ 
covery and the capacity for high adventure, ceased to take 
pleasure in the work of his hands? Is he unmindful of 
the daily tasks and fidelities of those 

That with weak virtues, weaker hands. 

Sow gladness on the peopled lands. 

And still with laughter, song and shout 
Spin the great wheel of earth about? 11 

10 II Chron. 2:7. 

11 R. L. Stevenson, “ Our Lady of the Snows.” 


The Church and the World 127 

Hence, over against what is felt to be a too exclusive 
concentration on the central and commanding realities 
of sin and redemption, we find in Christian history an en¬ 
deavor to reach an interpretation of the relation of church 
and world which gives a religious significance to the mani¬ 
fold interests and activities of the world, and provides a 
place within the Christian outlook for a Christian human¬ 
ism sensitive to all the movement and color of the drama 
of human existence. For, as one student points out, “ re¬ 
ligion can only be fresh and vital, a spring of spontaneous 
inspiration such as can redeem, direct and fertilize the 
manifold life and interests of the world, if it is in vivid 
and sympathetic response to the fascinating values and 
opportunities, the rich and ever widening claims and 
tasks of our absorbing and many-colored society.” 12 

The task of interpreting the whole of life in the light of 
the revelation in Christ is especially necessary in our time 
since, in spite of disillusionments and tendencies to pessi¬ 
mism, the modern mind is possessed by a sense of the 
vast sweep and range of the cosmic progress and by the 
great opportunities which lie open to human endeavor. 
With unabated and restless energy the human race con¬ 
tinues to address itself to the mastery of the forces of nature 
and to the control and direction of the course of human 
life. A religion which has little or nothing to say about 
the manifold interests and activities which absorb men’s 
waking hours can have no meaning for the actual life 
which they must live. The church cannot abandon the 
attempt to provide an ethic of civilization without relaps¬ 
ing into a position of irrelevance and insignificance in 
relation to the life of the world which is incompatible 
with its faith in God’s sovereignty and fatherly care. The 
endeavor must be renewed in every age. 

12 F. R. Barry, Relevance of Christianity , p. 135. 


128 The Church and Its Function in Society 

It seems impossible to many Christian minds to think 
of God’s activity in the world exclusively in terms of the 
redemption wrought in Christ. We must be on our guard, 
wrote a distinguished leader of the church in commenting 
on an earlier draft of this paper, against “ putting too 
much on Christianity.” The whole course of history, he 
would hold, is inspired, and mankind is being led into a 
possession of the truth by agents other than the church. 
This view has affinities with the Lutheran doctrine of the 
two spheres, with the difference of accent that it is disposed 
to regard God’s activity in the temporal sphere as co¬ 
ordinate and congruous with his redeeming activity in 
Christ, while the Lutheran tendency is to regard the course 
of events in the natural world as having no connection 
with the gospel of love, and as the operation of a hidden 
God, whose purpose will be fully revealed only in the 
world to come. 

The religious truth which the upholders of the view 
we are considering desire to conserve and assert is “ the 
vital significance of the material and temporal world to 
the eternal spirit.” The universe is sacramental, as the 
Archbishop of York, from whom these words are quoted, 
contends, in the sense that the values found in the his¬ 
torical sphere are such as belong essentially to the eternal. 
When we think of the world “ with its aspirations and 
heroisms, its beauty and its love, we must needs say that 
these have value for God as the only alternative to saying 
that God is inadequate, or inferior, to the world which 
has proceeded from his creative act.” It is only in this 
sacramental view of the universe “ that there is given hope 
of making human both politics and economics, and of 
making effectual both faith and love.” 13 

Experience has shown the tendency of religion, in pro- 

13 Nature, Man and God, pp. 480, 486, 493. 


The Church and the World 129 

portion as it is intense, to become narrow and bigoted and 
to manifest harsh and unlovely features. The corrective 
which restores to life its true balance, breadth and sanity 
comes from occupation with the activities of natural ex¬ 
istence and from the discipline of concrete tasks. If re¬ 
ligious belief is to be kept free from onesidedness and 
perversion it must have constant criticism from without. 
If God is not absent from the world which he has created, 
if he is at work in the lives and undertakings even of 
those who do not call upon his name, the profound dis¬ 
tinction between the church and the world cannot be 
treated as identical with the difference between two soci¬ 
ological groups. What is said of the church in its true 
nature does not necessarily apply to the church as an 
institution. The secular world is not only the sphere in 
which God’s will has to be fulfilled; it has a religious 
significance of its own as the corrective of all ecclesiastical 
or priestly pretensions; it is a standing protest against the 
claim of any church to be, as an institution, the sole 
channel of God’s grace. Belief in the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ is hard to reconcile with the idea 
that he has left the world entirely to itself and is interested 
only in the fortunes of ecclesiastical Christianity. 

It is easy to see how any relaxation of the tension be¬ 
tween the world of redemption and the natural world is 
in danger of leading to emasculation of the gospel and 
secularization of the church, and history is evidence how 
often and how widely such change has taken place. When 
this happens, when the church becomes conformed to the 
world and its ways, the substance and saving power of 
the gospel have evaporated. None would be more ready 
than many of the strongest advocates of the view under 
consideration to recognize that the cross cannot be taken 
out of Christianity without changing Christianity beyond 


130 The Church and Its Function in Society 

recognition. Christian salvation means redemption from 
the world with its standards and values. The demand of 
Christ is always absolute. Without the note of contemptus 
mundi there is no authentic Christianity. 

Asceticism is at all times and in all circumstances an 
essential ingredient in every Christian life worthy of the 
name. Where this note is absent profession of Christianity 
degenerates into spineless amiability and ineffectual 
goodyness. There have been periods in the history of 
the church when the evils of the world were so gross that 
they could be combated only by a stern austerity. As 
Harnack reminds us: 

The resolute renunciation of the world was really the first 
thing which made the church competent and strong to tell 
upon the world. Then, if ever, was the saying true: “ He who 
would do anything for the world must have nothing to do with 
it.” Revolutions are not effected with rose water, and it was a 
veritable revolution to overthrow polytheism and to establish 
the majesty of God and goodness in the world . 14 

6. THE RULE OF GOD 

We have already considered one broad tendency of 
thought on the church’s relation to the world, a tend¬ 
ency deriving its inspiration from the ideas of the Refor¬ 
mation. It has found expression in a variety of forms, 
and more particularly in Lutheranism, though the attitude 
is not that of all Lutherans and is also held by many Chris¬ 
tians belonging to churches other than the Lutheran. We 
must now turn our attention to another main type of 
thought resulting from the Reformation, that which has 
found expression chiefly in Calvinism, though in its broad 
features it also has adherents among Lutherans and the 
members of other churches not deeply influenced by the 
Calvinist tradition. 

14 The Mission and Expansion of Christianity, I, 98. 


The Church and the World 131 

This view, no less than the other, is rooted in the con¬ 
viction that salvation is from first to last a personal act 
of the self-communication of God to a sinful and lost 
world. But, unlike the other view, it does not interpret 
the claim of Christ to universal dominion in an exclusively 
eschatological sense and place its realization in the future; 
rather it understands that claim as imposing on the church 
a missionary task directed toward influencing the whole 
life of society. As the ambassador and servant of its living, 
risen Lord the church is the instrument of his rule, and is 
called to bear its witness throughout the world and in all 
spheres of life, including those of business and politics. 

The relation of the church to the world is thus one of 
dramatic tension: boundaries are continually shifting, the 
fortunes of the struggle vary, and new fronts are constantly 
being formed. There can thus be no question of the 
church’s withdrawal from the world or of its regarding 
the conditions and happenings of society as irrelevant to 
its own life. The love of Christ constrains the church to 
enter as deeply and as widely as possible into the life of 
mankind. The new fellowship with God has a spontane¬ 
ous urge to express itself in new social relations and in 
new ways of dealing with material things. 

This activism in relation to the world has its source and 
its criterion in a humble and joyous receptivity. The 
church encounters the world not primarily with a demand 
or an ideal, but with the proclamation of a gift — a gift so 
rich and comprehensive that it has relevance for the whole 
of life. 

There is a strong eschatological strain in this view of 
the relation of church and world. It is far removed from 
any optimistic belief in the progressive realization of the 
rule of God within the course of human history. It is 
aware, like the writers of the New Testament, that the 


132 The Church and Its Function in Society 

opposition of the powers of evil will increase in strength 
in proportion as the church is loyal to its divine com¬ 
mission in the conflict with falsehood and wrong. The 
church and the world will be opposed to each other to 
the end of time. The final victory will not be achieved on 
earth. But the hope of the transcendent accomplishment 
of God’s rule, of which the church is only the firstfruits, 
does not lead to a complacent acquiescence in things as 
they are. It is an ever present vision which nerves en¬ 
deavor and inspires to fresh adventure. 

The existence of the church implies a complete trans¬ 
valuation of all the values current in the world. The 
church has its own distinctive message and its own stand¬ 
ards which it presents to the world. It cannot, therefore, 
give its unqualified endorsement even to the noblest en¬ 
deavors toward social justice and international peace with¬ 
out first asking how far these will further the reign of 
Christ. This does not diminish in any way its active re¬ 
sponsibility in the affairs of the world. But this responsi¬ 
bility has its own perspective and its own categories of 
judgment. These are the realities of evil and of love, 
and not those of hedonistic happiness or of a purely nega¬ 
tive peace. The proclamation of the kingdom of God 
is the source and center of Christian action, but the goal 
is not one which can be comprehended or realized by men. 
The formulation of programs of Christian action and the 
adoption of concrete aims are not precluded; but these 
are incidental and temporary in character, since they are 
always related to the existing situation. 

It may lead to fruitful discussion and bring before us 
certain illuminating and instructive contrasts if we set 
over against the view just described an alternative con¬ 
ception of the establishment of God’s rule, one which has 
met with wide acceptance and has influenced the attitude 


The Church and the World 133 

and action of many churches and of multitudes of indi¬ 
vidual Christians. We may for convenience describe it 
as the evolutionary, optimistic Christian view of the world. 
It will serve our purpose best to begin by sharpening the 
contrasts, and for this reason stating the alternative in its 
extremer forms of expression. It is important to realize 
that the issues we are about to consider are the occasion 
of the acutest differences within the ecumenical Christian 
movement; it is at this point that the difficulties of agree¬ 
ment are greatest, both in faith and in action. But it 
must also be emphasized that on these very issues the 
lines continually cross, and that the upholders of one 
view, as here expounded, would very often not only re¬ 
fuse to deny elements of truth in the opposite view but 
would strongly affirm them as an essential part of their 
own faith. 

The picture of the world as a continuous process un¬ 
folding and developing by an inner necessity, a picture 
which modern science presents with an ever multiplying 
wealth of detail, has in recent generations laid powerful 
hold on the minds and imaginations of men. It seemed 
natural to regard Christianity as the culmination of a uni¬ 
versal process which was at once God’s revelation of himself 
to man and man’s discovery of God. Among recent writers 
we find this conception determining the outlook of the 
Bishop of Durham in his Gifford Lectures on Christian 
Morality, when he maintains Christian morality to be 
at once natural, developing and final; and of Professor 
Raven in his Riddell Lectures on Evolution and the Chris¬ 
tian Conception of God , who presents Christ as the con¬ 
summation and completion of “ the age-long world-wide 
purpose of creation,” and maintains that to regard him 
thus “ as typical, representative and illuminating, not as 
alien, intrusive or confounding,” is not to honor or wor- 


134 T he Church and Its Function in Society 

ship him the less, but to find in his revelation “ a new 
coherence, a new validity, a new majesty.” 16 

Similar ideas underlie what is known as the social gospel 
in America. Walter Rauschenbusch, its most brilliant ex¬ 
ponent, explicitly connects it with “ the universal reign 
of law, the doctrine of evolution, the control of nature by 
man, which are among the most influential convictions 
of modern life.” 16 Its dominant inspiration is the king¬ 
dom of God conceived as a goal to be realized within the 
temporal order. A phrase which continually recurs in 
the literature of the movements inspired by these ideas is 
“ building the kingdom of God on earth.” The end is 
conceived to be the creation of a world of social justice, 
peace, brotherhood and plenty. A recent resolution of 
the General Council of the Congregational and Christian 
Churches of the United States setting up a Council for 
Social Action reads: “ Believing that the church will find 
itself as it loses itself in the struggle to achieve a warless, 
just and brotherly world, we launch this venture, dedi¬ 
cating ourselves to unremitting work for a day in which 
all men find peace, security and abundant life.” The 
kingdom of heaven on earth is a world “ from which fear 
and want are banished,” in which there is “ mutual re¬ 
spect among individuals, personal growth and social re¬ 
sponsibility.” 17 It would be possible to multiply indefi¬ 
nitely utterances of Christian gatherings in which these 
ideas find expression and evoke enthusiastic and passion¬ 
ate assent. 

The faith which inspires the movement we are describ¬ 
ing may be briefly summarized as follows: Christianity 
is essentially the revelation of the infinite value of human 

is p. 31. 

1 6 A Theology of the Social Gospel, p. 23. 

17 See the literature of the Council for Social Action, 287 Fourth avenue. 
New York. 


The Church and the World 135 

personality and of love as the supreme principle of life. 
Community, or the true social order, means persons living 
in fellowship and love. Christian loyalty requires that 
these principles be applied to every relationship of life. 
Brotherhood means sharing in material things as well as 
in spiritual. The kingdom of God is the progressive real¬ 
ization of the reign of love in human affairs. Every eco¬ 
nomic, social or political system has to be judged by the 
measure in which it hinders or facilitates the free growth 
of persons and of fellowship and mutual love and trust 
among them. 

The fact that there is much in this statement to which 
many Christians with a wholly different theological out¬ 
look from that of some advocates of the social gospel would 
subscribe — with some differences, no doubt, of phrase¬ 
ology and emphasis — shows how great is the need for 
further clarification and mutual understanding. 

The strongly monistic character of this evolutionary 
interpretation of Christianity, at least in some of its ex¬ 
pressions, its optimistic view of human nature, its mini¬ 
mizing of the distinction between the church and the 
world, and its often exclusive emphasis on this-worldly 
ends, provoke in other quarters the most vehement dissent 
and the strongest opposition. 

We may try now to draw out certain contrasts which 
may help to illuminate the whole of our discussion. The 
two attitudes, which though both are concerned with the 
establishment of the rule of God are yet so sharply opposed, 
have their roots in different conceptions of God and of his 
relation to the world. In the one view God is conceived 
of as the Creator 

whose act of creation does not exhaust his being, who remains 
absolutely free, not limited or conditioned by his creation. It 
is his will, not a principle or law of rational or moral character. 


136 The Church and Its Function in Society 

that sets the norm for man’s life. He is therefore personal, for 
it is as dynamic and sovereign will, truly distinct from one’s 
own will, that man comes to know him . 18 

God is in his nature mysterious, unfathomable and incom¬ 
prehensible to human understanding. His ways are hid¬ 
den. He has indeed revealed himself in Christ, and man 
has this clear light by which to guide his steps. But God’s 
purpose always reaches beyond what man with his limited 
insight and understanding believes to be good and right. 
This emphasis on the sovereignty and transcendence of 
God is an essential element of Christianity and at the same 
time the spring of social progress. For a religion that is 
fully at home in society and is merely the expression of 
the prevailing values and aspirations has nothing impor¬ 
tant to say to it. Only from that which lies beyond all cul¬ 
ture and conventional morality can there come an effective 
and transforming criticism of the self and of society. Hu¬ 
man effort and aspiration must be brought to the bar of 
God’s searching judgment to find in submission to it 
purification, renewal, and fresh outreach. 

In the other view the distance between God and man is 
lessened. Love and goodness as manifested in human life 
are the essential qualities of God. There is a norm com¬ 
mon to God and man. God is the indwelling law of the 
universe manifest in human reason and goodness. God’s 
plan for the world tends to be identified with human 
purposes. 

The old gulf which separated man from God is bridged, and 
instead of the dramatic conception that mankind is in revolu¬ 
tion against its Creator there comes the optimistic idea that 
there is a happy comradeship in the common undertaking of 
building a fairer and brighter world . 19 

is W. A. Visser 't Hooft, The Background of the Social Gospel in 
America, pp. 169-70. 

is Ibid., p. 175. 


The Church and the World 137 

This attitude is plainly liable and has often succumbed 
to the danger of reducing the Christian gospel, with its 
inexhaustible and mysterious depths and overwhelming 
paradoxes, to a program of humanitarian reform and shal¬ 
low meliorism. Yet in its more serious forms it is contend¬ 
ing for a truth which many would hold to be as essential 
to Christianity as insistence on the divine transcend¬ 
ence. Man’s normal perceptions of value must be in some 
measure true. If God were not revealed in the affections 
and loyalties of human intercourse men would be in¬ 
capable of understanding his revelation in Christ. The 
divine method in dealing with men is persuasion. The 
only ultimate authority is that which makes its appeal to 
insight. What claims obedience is that which is recog¬ 
nized to possess intrinsic truth and worth. 

Between these two poles the Christian life must con¬ 
tinually revolve. We have no way of understanding and 
expressing the love of God except through such acts as 
our finite and sinful nature is capable of performing. And 
yet to equate the divine love which passes understanding 
with what we understand by love and with our small and 
shallow programs is to withdraw ourselves from the judg¬ 
ment that has power to shatter our complacency and make 
us new creatures in Christ. The aims and activities of the 
limited communities of nature and history are, as Professor 
Reinhold Niebuhr has said, “ both the promise of, and a 
peril to, the love of the kingdom of God.” 20 

A second contrast is between the emphasis laid in the 
two views on the action of God and on the action of men in 
the establishment of God’s rule. On the one hand is the 
desire to assert that the kingdom of God is not a human 
enterprise to be brought about by human effort, and that 
God alone can establish it. It is God’s gift and creation, 
and he will bring it to pass at his own time and in his 

20 in the forthcoming volume, Christian Faith and the Common Life. 


138 The Church and Its Function in Society 

own way. On the other side the emphasis is laid on the 
perception that God uses men for the accomplishment of 
his purposes and seeks their cooperation. Justice must be 
done to each of these two truths. A sense of human in¬ 
sufficiency is inseparable from any genuine Christian ex¬ 
perience. Life is transformed when a man awakens to the 
fact that in the work he has to do he is dependent not on 
his own powers but on forces of truth and goodness outside 
himself in which he can participate. It is this fact of 
participation in a life and purpose not his own that alone 
eliminates the element of presumption which must other¬ 
wise taint and vitiate every effort to save or reform the 
world. But it is no less necessary to hold firmly to the truth 
that it has pleased God to choose men to be the instru¬ 
ments of his purpose of redemption for the world and that 
he waits for their response in faith and obedience. 

Third, these two views again confront us with the funda¬ 
mental issue of the difference between the law and the 
gospel. Modern Protestantism, the one side contends, has 
transformed the gospel into a legal code, and substituted 
ideals for the proclamation of redeeming facts and of the 
advent of a new reality; it sees no more in Christ than the 
teacher of a higher morality. The danger of turning Chris¬ 
tianity into a new law is always present, and throughout 
the history of the church Christians have constantly yielded 
to the temptation. To do this is to pervert its nature and 
to destroy its power. Yet those who on the other hand 
insist on the primacy of the gospel are sometimes in dan¬ 
ger of forgetting that the gospel as the revelation of a new 
world has inescapable ethical implications that confront 
both the individual and society with the necessity of de¬ 
cision. The God who has revealed his grace and forgive¬ 
ness in Christ is also a righteous and holy God who makes 
a claim on the whole man, transforming his motives, his 


The Church and the World 139 

interests and his ideals. It must be recognized also that 
many whose utterances might lay them open to the criti¬ 
cism that they have forgotten that Christianity is primarily 
a gospel have been inspired by a Christlike passion for 
righteousness and have earned the commendation of those 
who are doers of the Word and not hearers only. 

A final contrast relates to the agents by whom Christian 
social action is to be carried out. The one view, which 
draws no sharp distinction between the church and the 
world, looks to the common action of all men of good will. 
Its programs tend to be such as may be expected to win 
the support of Christians and non-Christians alike. Both 
knowledge of the right ends and power to realize them may 
be counted on in the general community. In the other 
view, it is the church that has been chosen by God as the 
vehicle of his revelation and the instrument of the realiza¬ 
tion of his purposes. The church is the true center of so¬ 
cial renewal, and it can become this in fact in so far as it 
places itself unreservedly at God’s disposal. There can be 
no Christian social order where there are not first Christian 
men. The social implications of the Christian message 
offer guidance to the church in regard to the ordering of 
its own life and its relation to the world, but they offer no 
cure for the problems of the world, acute and pressing as 
they are, apart from Christ. 


VII 


THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH 
he responsibilities of the church in relation to the 



i general life of the community and to the social, politi¬ 
cal and international order cannot be detached from their 
roots in the being of the church and in the total expression 
of its life. The church ministers to the needs of society 
not so much by the exercise of this or that particular func¬ 
tion as by its whole existence. While it is necessary for 
practical purposes to distinguish different functions of the 
church, all its functions are related to one another and each 
requires for its effective exercise the fulfillment of the 
others. If one is permitted to languish the efficacy of the 
others is impaired. There is no panacea for the evils from 
which the world is suffering. The influence of the church 
on society is the result of the faithfulness of a multitude of 
individuals, each fulfilling loyally the task which at any 
given moment he is called to perform. 

The functions of the church are determined not by the 
needs of any particular historical situation, but by its divine 
commission. It is also true, however, that each fresh ex¬ 
perience through which men pass may contribute to a new 
understanding of God’s purpose for the church. If God is 
the living God we must expect that through an honest fac¬ 
ing of the demands of the contemporary situation new light 
will be vouchsafed. It is an encouragement for this hope 
that we are permitted to seek for light in an ecumenical 
fellowship in which each of the churches may contribute 
to the common deliberations the gift of its own distinctive 
tradition and experience. 


140 


The Functions of the Church 


141 


1 . THE CONSTITUTIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH 

It is the common faith of Christians that the church owes 
its existence to an act of God in history. It derives its be¬ 
ing from God. It draws its nourishment and sustenance 
from God. Its primary functions, therefore, are those 
which relate to the divine source of its life — the acts by 
which it is ever anew constituted a church and takes fresh 
possession, so to speak, of the Reality which makes it what 
it is. These functions have a receptive and an active side. 

(a) Receptive. We were reminded in an earlier chap¬ 
ter, in words quoted from Baron von Hiigel, that religion 
begins and ends with the given. The fundamental attitude 
of the Christian is consequently that of receiving. This 
truth is insisted on with equal decisiveness in both the 
Catholic and the Reformation conceptions of the worship 
of the church. Protestant doctrine asserts that the Word 
and the sacraments constitute the church. The church is 
a place, or rather the one place, where self-confident, au¬ 
tonomous man is reminded that with all his proud auton¬ 
omy he is not his own, but stands in the presence and power 
of Another with whom he has to come to terms . 1 In the 
Catholic conception of worship there is a similar insistence 
on the priority and prevenience of God. The central place 
is filled by the eucharist. The sacrifice of the mass is some¬ 
thing given objectively, independently of any mood or state 
of feeling or desert on the part of the worshiper. 

The acts of reception by which the church ever anew 
constitutes itself a church are the hearing of the Word and 
the receiving of the sacraments. To listen to the Word is 
to open the mind and heart to the message of the grace and 
truth that came by Jesus Christ. This truth, enshrined in 
the Bible, is made living and effectual by the Holy Spirit. 

1 Thurneysen, Das Wort Gottes und die Kirche, pp. 64, 102. 


142 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Only by the continuous exposure of the whole being to its 
transfiguring influence can we fulfill the apostolic injunc¬ 
tion not to be conformed to this world, but to be trans¬ 
formed by the renewing of our minds. It is not merely 
individual members of the church, but the church as a 
whole in the person of its teachers and leaders and rulers, 
that has thus to listen to God’s Word in order that it may 
be progressively converted to the mind of Christ. 

We misunderstand the significance of Christian worship 
if we think primarily of its subjective aspects. The cen¬ 
tral thing is not the elevation of the soul to God in pious 
thoughts, but the new orientation of life which follows 
from the acknowledgment of the reality of God and from 
the deliverance through his redeeming grace from self- 
centeredness, which is the essential, fundamental sin and 
evil and the corruption of all morality. 

(b) Active. Corresponding to the receptive acts by 
which the church is ever constituted afresh are the active 
functions in which, through its appointed officers, the 
church mediates what it has received. These are, first, the 
proclamation of the gospel — not merely in preaching and 
addresses, but in acts of worship and deeds of mercy and 
love that declare its central message — and, second, the ad¬ 
ministration of the sacraments, with their unfailing witness 
to the objectivity and reality of God’s redemption. 

It is with the intention of safeguarding the constitutive 
functions of the church that the church is defined in the 
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England and in the 
Confessio Augustana, as the congregation of faithful men 
in which the pure Word of God is preached (or the gospel 
is rightly taught) and the sacraments are duly administered. 
Without the exercise of these essential functions in which 
the church renews its life, the church would no longer be 
a church in the Christian sense. But this is not to say that 


The Functions of the Church 143 

the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the 
sacraments are the only expression of the life of the church. 
They are the source of a new life which is meant to mani¬ 
fest itself in new attitudes and behavior and to bring about 
transformations in the life of society. But the deepest truths 
are often the most dangerous. Insistence on the essential, 
constitutive functions may lead too easily in practice, as we 
have already seen , 2 to a disastrous ecclesiasticizing of the 
church, so that it becomes primarily an affair and interest 
of clergy and theologians rather than a community of re¬ 
deemed men and women joyfully serving God in the ordi¬ 
nary concerns of the common life. 

2 . FUNCTIONS RELATING TO THE EXPRESSION AND REALIZA¬ 
TION OF THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH 

(a) The Church as a Community of Worship. The 
essential meaning of the Christian gospel is redemption. 
Life has been given a new center. The center of the Chris¬ 
tian’s life is no longer himself but God. The deepest ex¬ 
pression of the new life is consequently worship and adora¬ 
tion. We are concerned here with man’s response to God’s 
act and gift, which in its objective reality we have already 
considered. Worship is the response of believing men in 
adoration and joyous self-dedication to God’s revelation of 
himself and to his redeeming grace. The church is by its 
nature a worshiping community, and its necessary function 
as an organized society is to provide opportunities for com¬ 
mon and public worship and to educate its individual mem¬ 
bers in the spirit and practice of worship. 

Worship is not only the natural expression and language 
of the Christian soul, but the fountain and source of crea¬ 
tive activities. Without continual reference to an ultimate 
standard and an absolute judgment all work tends to lose 
2 Pp. 101 ff. 


144 The Church and Its Function in Society 

its significance. The self becomes identified with the ob¬ 
jects of its pursuit. Our souls shrink to the dimensions of 
the things that we do. The witness of the church draws 
reality and depth from its worship. ^ 

These rich possibilities of worship can be realized only 
in so far as faith lays hold of the reality of God. The dan¬ 
ger is always present that the worshiper may become occu¬ 
pied with his own states and feelings and be content to have 
his emotions quickened and elevated in private prayer or 
in congregational worship, while his will and behavior re¬ 
main wholly uninfluenced. It is at this point that the mod¬ 
ern attack on the life of religion as an evasion of reality 
carries a sting of truth. We ought to be under no illusions 
in regard to the extent to which worship may be, and too 
often is, an escape from the burdens and vexations of life 
into a world of soothing hopes and transient and ineffec¬ 
tive aspirations. 

Christian worship when true to its own nature rises above 
these dangers. It does not consist in the aesthetic contem¬ 
plation of the universe nor in a flight into an imaginary 
world in which compensation may be found for the too 
heavy burdens and trials of this earthly life. It is not “ a 
contemplative immersion in Being, or a quietistic denega¬ 
tion of the will, but an active dedication of the will to a 
God who is overflowingly alive and has positive ends for 
the world and opens up an immense movement for this 
same world.” 3 Those who have experienced, even on rare 
occasions, the realities of prayer know that such moments 
have been the most creative and fruitful in their lives. 
Worship is adoration issuing in action, and the unity of 
adoration and action transforms life into a sacrament. A 
worshiping community dedicated to the fulfillment of God’s 
purpose becomes the means through which God’s purpose 
3 Troeltsch, Gesammelte Schriften, II, 636. 


The Functions of the Church 145 

may be realized in the world in all the relationships of hu¬ 
man life. 

The offering, both individual and corporate, of the self 
to God in service and sacrifice has always been a central 
element in Christian worship and fills a large place in Chris¬ 
tian liturgies. 

The response of the human creature to the Divine is summed 
up in sacrifice; the action which expresses more fully than any 
other his deep, if uncomprehended, relation to God. . . . 
Without it worship may easily degenerate into emotional ad¬ 
miration; and, on the other hand, the “spiritual” sacrifice with¬ 
out concrete embodiment lacks at least one element of costli¬ 
ness, and is out of touch with the here and now realities of 
human life . 4 

It is essential to true worship that it should not become 
detached from the practical responsibilities of life, of which 
it is meant to be the consecration and inspiration. Corpo¬ 
rate worship would seem to require, in order to be fully 
real, a sharing by the worshipers of experience and need 
with one another, and also an explicit reference to particu¬ 
lar tasks and difficulties, for meeting which the common 
worship supplies inspiration and strength. To worship 
truly with other men we must know them as men whose 
burdens we may share. The requirements of true corpo¬ 
rate worship are not fully met by large congregational 
services. These need to be revitalized and enriched by the 
worship of smaller groups in which a more intimate human 
fellowship is possible. 

In so far as it achieves its true and full purpose the wor¬ 
ship of the church may be regarded as the most potent and 
fruitful form of social action. Who can tell what life- 
giving energies it may release or what hidden, secret forces 
it may set in motion to spread from person to person and 
4 Evelyn Underhill, Worship , pp. 47-48. 


146 The Church and Its Function in Society 

insensibly transform the thought and spirit of the age? But 
such release can take place, it would seem, only if the con¬ 
nection with actual life is never lost; only if worship im¬ 
parts a significance to the daily round, if it consecrates and 
illuminates with meaning the relations of family and neigh¬ 
borhood, recreation and friendship, and the various inter¬ 
ests of the common life; only if those who kneel at the altar 
are in that act rededicated to the service of God and man 
and go forth with loins girt and sword unsheathed to fight 
in the name of the Lord against all iniquity. To believe 
that such results can flow from worship, that they have in 
fact so flowed in the course of Christian history, must not 
lead us to assume that the worship of the church today is 
active as a mighty leaven in the life of the world. To speak 
as we have done of the worship of the church is to call for 
searching self-examination. 

(b) The Church as a Community of Love. Familiarity 
has dulled our minds to the startling and revolutionary 
quality of such words as these: “ He that abideth in love 
abideth in God, and God abideth in him”; “Every one 
that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God ”; “ Now 
abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of 
these is love.” 

The church has rightly laid stress on faith, since it is 
only by our personal response to God’s personal call that 
we can be redeemed to a new life. But it has in a far less 
degree emphasized the other truth, that the new life into 
which we are called and admitted is a life of community 
and love. The impression which the church has too often 
conveyed to the world is that to be a Christian means pri¬ 
marily to hold certain doctrinal beliefs. Only through the 
lives of some of its saints and of a relatively small propor¬ 
tion of its humbler and unknown members has it given to 
the outside world occasion to suppose that to be a Christian 


The Functions of the Church 147 

is to be redeemed into a new sphere of being in which love 
and freedom reign. 

The church is the realization of true community. Its 
essential nature is fellowship between persons. It can be 
the manifestation of the true meaning of community be¬ 
cause its life is rooted in the love of God. It is only the 
love of God which can deliver us from our self-centered 
isolation and set us free to love our fellow men. The more 
we struggle to overcome our egocentricity the more ego¬ 
centric we become. Only a love that comes to us from 
without and gives our lives a new center in the One who 
loves us can break the fetters of our self-love. The church 
is thus the sphere of free relations of mutual love and trust 
between persons, and is meant to be the witness to the 
world of the true relations of men with one another. 

Christian love is something quite other than sentimental 
charity or humanitarian good will or natural human com¬ 
radeship. It has its spring in the costly self-giving of Christ. 
It finds its objects not only in those who are attractive and 
congenial, but in those who are unlovely and naturally 
repellent. It loves men because it knows them to be the 
objects of God’s love. It sees in the other man not merely 
what he is now but what he might become through the 
redeeming and creative power of love. 

Christian love is open-eyed to the concrete physical, in¬ 
tellectual and moral needs of men and seeks to minister to 
those needs, but it is never content to stop there. Its aim 
in and through these ministries is to bring men to Christ, 
in order that the deepest need of their nature may be met. 
The pastoral cure of souls must fill a large place in the life 
of the community of love. There are multitudes who are 
sick in soul as well as in body and in mind. Ministry to 
these needs is not the responsibility of the clergy and pas¬ 
tors alone, but of all members of the Christian community. 


148 The Church and Its Function in Society 

A promising beginning has been made in some places in 
cooperation between the clergy and the medical profession 
and psychiatrists in dealing with cases of mental distress. 
There are many cases which call for professional scientific 
advice if they are to be successfully treated, and many in 
which the physician recognizes that the only cure is the 
regeneration of the whole personality through the experi¬ 
ence of the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of con¬ 
fidence in a life of childlike trust in God. 

The church should be the place where barriers of race, 
nationality, class, sex and education are done away with, 
where the unprivileged, the downtrodden, the outcast and 
the despised, find a welcome and feel themselves at home; 
a meeting ground where those who are divided in ques¬ 
tions of politics and economics can realize afresh their 
unity in loyalty to a common Lord, can discuss their differ¬ 
ences in the reality of this fellowship and learn to under¬ 
stand one another. In the modern disintegration of so¬ 
cial life the church ought to provide centers in which men 
can find protection, shelter and security in the care and 
love of their fellow men, and rediscover the meaning of 
community in the support and comradeship of a society 
the members of which bear one another’s burdens and seek 
the good of all. The church ought also to be the place not 
only where support and encouragement are given those 
who need them, but where the more robust and vigorous 
may find their individualism and self-will disciplined and 
tempered and their purposes purified and strengthened in 
a common endeavor to learn and to fulfill the will of 
Christ. 

When we speak of the fulfilling of this function by the 
church, however, we have again to make distinctions. If 
we look for something which from the nature of things 
cannot come about, we are doomed to disappointment and 


The Functions of the Church 149 

may lose courage. The church as an organized society in¬ 
cludes a multitude of persons in very different stages of 
growth in the Christian life, if indeed in many instances 
they have entered on the Christian life at all. Many of 
them, like the disciples of whom we read in the Acts of the 
Apostles, “ have not so much as heard whether there be any 
Holy Ghost.” It cannot be expected, therefore, that they 
should manifest in full measure the gifts of the Spirit, the 
chief of which is love. What we must look for and work 
for is the growth of smaller groups who will seek to realize 
among themselves the relations of mutual trust and sup¬ 
port and responsibility which are characteristic of the 
Christian society. Such groups, while they may, to begin 
with, be small, must not become esoteric and exclusive. 
They must continually be seeking to extend their borders. 
The purpose of the leaven is to leaven the whole lump, 
but it is necessary first of all that there should be the 
leaven. It is futile to waste our breath in demanding that 
the “ church ” be this or that. We have to begin with our¬ 
selves and those whom we can influence. Life becomes real 
when we face our own responsibilities. It has been “ the 
few in every age who have been the soul of every reform 
and started every revival upon its daring course.” 6 The 
church has to be continually reborn as the living church 
within the church as an organized society. If within the 
larger body there are groups of persons actively engaged in 
discovering and realizing the meaning of Christian com¬ 
munity as a fellowship of persons living together in rela¬ 
tions of mutual trust, love, obligation and service, those 
outside who are brought by circumstances into touch with 
this life will feel its power and attraction and find Christ 
in and through his church. One of the factors which has 
contributed most to the triumph of both communism and 
5 W. F. Lofthouse, Christianity in the Social State, p. 144. 


150 The Church and Its Function in Society 

National Socialism is that these movements have succeeded 
in making fellowship and comradeship in small groups a 
real and living experience. 

(c) The Church as a Community of Thought. It was 
said in an earlier chapter 6 that the church is the abiding 
witness to the manifestation in history of a new reality. 
The grace and truth which came into the world by Jesus 
Christ have to find continually renewed expression both 
in life (as we have seen) and in thought. It is the task of 
the church to interpret to its own members and to the 
world outside, the meaning and implications of the gospel 
which it proclaims. The interpretation in thought of a 
truth which is inexhaustible can never be more than frag¬ 
mentary. But the striving for an understanding that is 
clearer, deeper and richer can never cease. 

It is one of the gravest weaknesses in the position of the 
church today that it lacks an adequate theology. Notable 
contributions to theological thought are not wanting. But 
what we have is in the main a chaos of different and often 
conflicting private opinions, not a recognized theology of 
the church. Our survey in the preceding chapter reveals 
how immense is the task which has yet to be undertaken. 

A statement in one of the earlier drafts of this paper — 
that perhaps the chief need of the church today to equip 
it for fulfillment of its mission to society is a theology — 
provoked much interesting comment. The laymen who 
commented on the paper seized almost without exception 
on the statement with avidity and expressed their warm 
agreement. One of these, a man who, after a distinguished 
public career, is devoting himself to the service of the poor, 
wrote in the margin that he regarded it as the most im¬ 
portant sentence in the paper. A distinguished theologian, 
on the other hand, expressed his unqualified dissent. 
6 p. 91. 


The Functions of the Church 151 

Nothing could be more perverse, he maintained, than to 
suppose that the hope of the world lies in theology with its 
intellectualism, its abstractions, its remoteness from life 
and its barren controversies. Experience shows how small 
is the transforming influence of even the best theology. 
The reformation of the church is vastly more important 
than the reformation of theology. Only out of a reborn 
church may we hope for the emergence of a vitalized 
theology. 

Some further explanation is obviously needed. What 
the laymen want and what the professor of theology dis¬ 
counts are two different things. Speculative and critical 
thought divorced from life and action has certainly little 
or nothing to contribute to the solution of the acute prob¬ 
lems of the modern world. But what the laymen are pain¬ 
fully aware of is that action is often impeded and para¬ 
lyzed by lack of clarity in regard to the conduct demanded 
of a Christian in the practical affairs of life. They feel the 
need of a more fully thought out and more generally ac¬ 
cepted interpretation of the Christian understanding of 
life, which strives at one and the same time to conserve the 
purity and fullness of the gospel and to express it in terms 
relevant to the thought, experience, and circumstances of 
men today. 

In the present crisis in which the church finds itself the 
response to God’s call must include the response of thought. 
The rival systems which claim men’s allegiance appeal to 
understanding as well as to feelings, and must be engaged 
and countered in both spheres. This is necessary not only 
for the sake of the church’s witness to those without, but 
also in order that its own members may be established and 
fortified in their faith. In the fulfillment of its task the 
church must call to its aid the best minds that it can com¬ 
mand. These will include laymen as well as theologians. 


152 The Church and Its Function in Society 

It is an interesting fact that the leading thinkers in the Or¬ 
thodox Church in the last century were laymen. 

Students of theology have an indispensable contribution 
to make to the task which the church is facing. There is 
urgent need of a fresh orientation of theological thought 
and a closer and more intimate relation between theologi¬ 
cal study and the problems of today. It is encouraging to 
find the Norris-Hulse professor of divinity in the Univer¬ 
sity of Cambridge pleading for interpreters of Christianity 
“ who, having penetrated to the historical actuality of first 
century Christianity, have received an impression of the 
truth in it which lies beyond the flux of time and demands 
to be restated in terms intelligible to the mind of our own 
age,” and who will consequently seek “ to grasp the whole 
first century gospel in its temporary, historical, and there¬ 
fore actual, reality, and then make the bold and even peril¬ 
ous attempt to translate the whole into contemporary 
terms.” 7 

Essential as is the contribution of the theologians, it is 
of no less importance, for its largest fruitfulness, that that 
contribution be made in living and direct contact with 
other types of thought and experience. One great weak¬ 
ness in modern life is its departmentalism. Few things 
are more needed than the achievement of an outlook on 
life which embraces and combines varied types of experi¬ 
ence. Theological thought will acquire a new relevance 
to the actual life of our time if opportunities can be created 
for theologians to meet in personal conference with those 
responsible for the conduct of public affairs and of indus¬ 
try, with representatives of labor, with educators and mem¬ 
bers of other professions, and learn from them at what 
points Christian doctrine is relevant to their responsibili¬ 
ties, experience, problems and needs. 

7 C. H. Dodd, The Present Task in New Testament Studies, pp. 38, 40. 


The Functions of the Church 153 

The clearer understanding of the significance of Chris¬ 
tian faith for the actual life of our time which we desider¬ 
ate is not primarily a matter of scholarship and learning; 
it is rather the fruit of spiritual insight and understanding. 
And we must never allow ourselves to forget that the reali¬ 
ties of the spiritual world may be hidden from the wise and 
prudent and revealed to babes. The truth we are seeking 
may come through prophets raised up by God to serve the 
needs of our generation, or it may be silently bom in the 
minds of multitudes of plain men and women as they 
loyally endeavor to do the will of Christ in the ordinary 
circumstances of their lives, and spread from one to an¬ 
other till it becomes a common possession. What we have 
in view is not a body of doctrinal teaching imposed from 
above, but a widely shared, growing clarity in regard to 
the true ends of life, by the light of which ordinary men 
and women will be able more surely to direct their 
steps. But in order to do its full work in the world 
the truth thus apprehended must be thought out in all its 
implications and defined with increasing clearness in rela¬ 
tion to the thought and problems of the age. The task of 
thought is to illuminate and strengthen Christian witness 
and action. 

We may take heart from the reflection that the theology 
of which we have been speaking may be forged in the con¬ 
flicts with the anti-Christian forces of our time. The open 
challenge not only to Christian belief but to Christian 
standards of conduct is helping to make clear what is at 
stake. The Christian creeds took shape in the early cen¬ 
turies in the struggle with various forms of heresy. The 
church was driven to declare that certain views were incom¬ 
patible with the Christian understanding of life. Simi¬ 
larly in the struggles of today it may become increasingly 
manifest to the Christian conscience that certain alle- 


154 The Church and Its Function in Society 

giances and certain forms of behavior are irreconcilable 
with the Christian faith and with Christian loyalties. Thus 
by a negative path we may arrive at a clearer positive defini¬ 
tion of what the Christian faith signifies for life today. 

What is progressively learned must also be systematically 
taught. Even among professing Christians there is often 
a profound and astonishing ignorance of what the Chris¬ 
tian faith is. It is common to find a complete vagueness in 
regard to its doctrinal beliefs, its ethical demands and its 
social relevance. There is need for far more extended, 
thorough and systematic teaching on these subjects than is 
at present provided. 

(d) The Church as a Social Organism. Reference may 
be made to a further function of the church, though we 
cannot enlarge upon it here. It is the function of the 
church in relation to its own organization — its constitu¬ 
tion, administration, finance, rules and customs. This is a 
field in which the characteristic life of the church ought to 
find significant expression. It is urged by a group which is 
attempting to bring about reforms in the ministry and the 
distribution of the revenues of the Church of England that 
“ in regard to many of the ills of contemporary society the 
influence of the church can only be indirect and persuasive, 
but it is within our power to set our own house in order.” 
The work of the church is seriously impeded when its 
institutional life is a contradiction of the message which it 
proclaims. Constitutional and economic reform, when it 
is called for, may be “ a sacrament of spiritual purpose and 
loyalty as no pietism can be,” since “ the Spirit of God al¬ 
ways breaks into human life conspicuously at the point of 
action — when men and groups do without fear or delay 
what they know is right.” 8 

s Men, Money and the Ministry: A Plea for Economic Reform in the 
Church of England (Longmans, Green and Co.). 


The Functions of the Church 


155 


3. FUNCTIONS IN RELATION TO THE WORLD 

(a) Evangelization. As witness to the manifestation 
in history of the true meaning of human existence the 
church is under an obligation to make that revelation 
known to all men. Though Christians have been to an 
extraordinary degree blind to the fact, it is impossible to 
hold the Christian faith of a divine salvation for the world 
and at the same time to deny or question the right of all 
men to participate in its benefits. Christianity in the pe¬ 
riods when it has been most alive has always been inspired 
by a “ passion for souls.” 

The more we occupy ourselves with the problems of the 
social and political, and in particular of the international 
order, the plainer it becomes that one of the fundamental 
obstacles to a solution is the fact of complete disagreement 
in regard to the ultimate purposes of life. How is agree¬ 
ment in practical affairs possible among those who hold 
irreconcilable philosophies of life? The conditions pre¬ 
vailing in the social and political spheres are determined, 
in part at least, by the attitudes and decisions of persons. 
If the purpose of God is to be realized in these spheres, and 
if the Christian understanding of life is to influence social 
and political action, practical change must come about 
through a change in the attitudes and actions of persons. 
Those movements within the church which insist on the 
primary necessity of a change of heart and mind in indi¬ 
viduals are striking at the root of social evil. Most em¬ 
phatically the conversion of individuals is not all. For, in 
the first place, the individual in isolation is a pure abstrac¬ 
tion; he is inseparable from the social context — from the 
ideas and institutions by which he is molded and the en¬ 
vironment in which he has to act. And, second, the sig¬ 
nificance of conversion lies in the ends to which men are 


156 The Church and Its Function in Society 

converted and the content and quality of the new life to 
which they commit themselves. None the less it remains 
true that repentance and conversion are the starting point 
of the Christian life. To be a Christian is to undergo a 
complete change of mind. The Christian purpose in the 
social and political spheres can be achieved only by those 
who have been converted to the Christian understanding 
of life. While this conversion of heart and mind is only 
the beginning, it is the indispensable beginning. In pro¬ 
portion as the church is in earnest about its responsibilities 
in social and political life it must address itself with re¬ 
newed energy to the task of evangelism. The social order 
can be improved only by persons whose lives have found a 
new orientation. To ignore this fact in thought, in policy 
or in practice is to evade the realities of life and to escape 
into a dream world of fanciful imaginations and empty 
hopes. The evangelization of non-Christian peoples and 
of the masses in western countries which have broken com¬ 
pletely with the Christian tradition must always hold a cen¬ 
tral place in the life and activities of the church. 

It is unmistakably clear that the work of evangelism is 
not one that can be accomplished by the clergy alone. 
Their numbers are too few, the responsibilities resting 
upon them already too varied and exacting, to permit of 
their reaching effectively the masses outside the church. 
Those who have to be won to the Christian faith do not for 
the most part attend the services of the church. If they 
are to be reached they must be reached in their homes, 
their places of business and their resorts of recreation. 
They must be won, if they are to be won at all, by their 
fellow laymen. The Oxford Group Movement has fur¬ 
nished an illustration of the possibilities of lay evangelism. 
Laymen are often not qualified to undertake systematic 
preaching, which demands theological training. But they 


The Functions of the Church 157 

can bear witness to that which they have found and which 
has illuminated and changed their lives. To multiply such 
witnesses is the task to which the church must address itself 
if it would fulfill its evangelistic mission to the world. 

(b) The Ministry of Mercy and Kindness . The greatest 
service that the church can render to men is to bring them 
to Christ, in whom their deepest needs are met. But it 
renders this service not merely by preaching, but by acts 
which express and confirm the spoken message. In deeds 
of mercy and kindness as well as in word the church pro¬ 
claims to men the message of God’s redeeming love. 

Christ declared that the characteristic of the new society 
which he founded, differentiating it from all others, was 
that its members were servants of one another, following 
the example of the Son of Man who “ came not to be minis¬ 
tered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for 
many.” In the washing of his disciples’ feet he gave an 
example that “ ye also should do as I have done unto you.” 
The test to be applied at the final judgment is whether 
men have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, clothed 
the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner. The lesson 
sank deep into the minds of Christ’s disciples. The Epis¬ 
tles are full of exhortations to remember the poor, to visit 
the fatherless and the widowed, to exercise hospitality, to 
show mercy and compassion. 

How large a part the ministry of mercy played in the life 
of the early church is shown in the chapter “ The Gospel of 
Love and Charity ” in Harnack’s Mission and Expansion 
of Christianity . 9 The headings of the sections of this chap¬ 
ter are sufficient to show the range of the activities — alms¬ 
giving in general, the support of widows or orphans, the 
support of the sick, the infirm and the disabled, the care of 
prisoners and slaves, the care of poor people needing burial, 
9 Vol. I, pp. 147 ff. 


158 The Church and Its Function in Society 

of those visited by great calamities, of brethren on a jour¬ 
ney, and of churches in poverty or peril. The story is 
summed up in the words, “ The new language on the lips 
of Christians was the language of love. But it was more 
than a language, it was a thing of power and action. The 
Christians really considered themselves brothers and sisters 
and their actions corresponded to this belief.” The gospel 
was proclaimed not only in word but in deed. Tertullian 
could claim: “ It is our care for the helpless, our practice 
of lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our 
opponents.” 

While services to the sick, the poor and the unfortunate 
which were initiated and for long undertaken by the 
church are now to a large extent provided by the state, 
there remains, and will always remain, an extensive and 
important sphere for the specifically Christian ministry. 
The needs of the outcasts whom society despises and re¬ 
jects, and of neglected classes whose wants are unnoticed 
or quickly forgotten by people too preoccupied with their 
own concerns, will always make a claim on Christian char¬ 
ity. Even among those for whom adequate material pro¬ 
vision is made by the state there exist a multitude of indi¬ 
vidual needs which no large-scale administrative system 
can reach, and above all the need for personal understand¬ 
ing, sympathy and friendship which no organization can 
supply, but which must always be the gift of man to man. 

The service of the church is rendered to men. But it is 
not the world of which the church is the servant. It can 
serve the world only as it is free from bondage to the world. 
The service which the church renders is not a service of 
its own choosing, or that which the world desires, but that 
to which the church is commissioned by Christ. 

(c) Witness. The witness of the church is to the mani¬ 
festation of a new reality — the grace and truth that came 


The Functions of the Church 


*59 

by Jesus Christ — and to the coming kingdom of God. It 
is directed not merely to individuals, in order that they 
may believe and be saved, but to the total life of the com¬ 
munity. The beliefs and practices of society must be set in 
the light of the truth that has been revealed. The church 
can fully serve men only as it helps them to see the whole 
of their life and all their activities in relation to the pur¬ 
pose of God. The church has a responsibility to the com¬ 
munity or nation as well as to the individual. 

The manner in which the church is called to discharge 
this function will vary with the circumstances of the age. 
The church has different tasks to fulfill in different condi¬ 
tions of social and political life. Where it has been re¬ 
cently planted in a new soil and is still young and small in 
numbers, its influence on the general life of the commu¬ 
nity is necessarily restricted; its primary task is to win fresh 
adherents to the faith. Sometimes, to be sure, as the his¬ 
tory of the mission field shows, the freshness of its message 
and the contrast between it and the prevailing ideas enable 
the church to exert an influence on the general thought 
and practice out of all proportion to its numbers. Some¬ 
times again, under autocratic and hostile governments, se¬ 
vere restraints may be placed on the freedom of the church. 
It may have to content itself with keeping alive the torch 
of faith in the hearts of a small handful of believers and 
waiting in patience for the day of God’s deliverance. It 
may be compelled, as in the early centuries, to seek refuge 
in the catacombs. Under other conditions the church may 
have full liberty to proclaim its own understanding of the 
truth and to express a judgment on public policy and so¬ 
cial practice. 

The question to which the mind of the church must be 
addressed is the nature of the witness which is demanded 
from it today. Discussions of the church’s task tend, under 


160 The Church and Its Function in Society 

the influence of prewar habits of thought, to presuppose 
a more or less stable state of society in which a slow and 
gradual permeation of Christian ideas may take place. 
The question which the churches must ask if they want to 
come to grips with the realities of life today is whether our 
customary conventional and comfortable ways of cultivat¬ 
ing and expressing the religious life have any relevance to 
the earnestness of a revolutionary situation. The report 
of a Committee on the State of the Church submitted to 
the biennial meeting of the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America in December, 1936, 10 de¬ 
plored “ the widespread dependence of the church upon 
secondary motives in maintaining the loyalty of its people.” 
It is clear, the authors of the report say, that “ many 
churches are depending too largely today upon the same 
motives which maintain clubs, lodges and philanthropies. 
They feel that they must furnish novel attractions and en¬ 
tertainment and organized activities that will enable them 
to compete with secular organizations.” That is plainly a 
trifling with the earnest issues of life that can make no 
appeal to the youth who are seeking an end to which they 
may wholly surrender their lives. But even when the 
church keeps free from entanglement with matters ex¬ 
traneous to its proper mission, can we assure ourselves that 
its religious services do not degenerate too easily into occa¬ 
sions which awaken merely transient emotions and provide 
a pleasing interlude in a week devoted to the real interests 
of life, which remain unaffected by our worship? And in 
so far as this is true, can a church which has so little pun¬ 
gency and provocation in its message expect to arrest or 
hold the attention of a generation many of whose members 
are under the spell of the urge to death and are marching in 
10 Published in the Christian Century, December 30, 1936. 


The Functions of the Church 161 

their hundreds of thousands to imagined glory or extinc¬ 
tion? 

Belief in the church and loyalty to it compel us to face 
these questions. On the answer given them may depend 
whether there will continue to be a church at all. In a 
time when the foundations of the world are moved and 
men are peering anxiously into the future and asking them¬ 
selves what direction they should take, the voice of the 
church must be clear, definite and challenging if it is to re¬ 
ceive serious attention. This does not mean that the 
church should identify itself with a particular fashionable 
or unfashionable political program or with any set of ideas 
derived from sources other than its own understanding of 
the truth by which it lives. A true word of prophecy must 
mean a response to God’s call springing out of reflection 
on the Word committed to the church. But if it is given 
to the church to speak a prophetic word it will of necessity 
be a disturbing word, one that will challenge and offend 
existing ideas, prejudices and interest. We must not de¬ 
lude ourselves. It is not possible to have it both ways. In 
a world in which millions of men are prepared to fight and 
to die for their faith the church may count for very little, 
or, by God’s grace, it may count for much — but only at 
a large cost. It may be God’s purpose that the church re¬ 
gain a moral and spiritual leadership which it has largely 
lost. But if this is to come about the price must be paid 
in full. If we are not ready to pay it, we may as well 
resign ourselves to impotence, for then men will judge 
rightly that the Christian faith is not a live alternative in 
the sphere of action. 


VIII 

THE NATURE OF THE CORPORATE LIFE 


B efore we go on to consider, in the light of the survey 
in chapter six, the action of Christians and of the 
church as an organized society in the social and political 
spheres, it is desirable to recall some of the factors which 
determine the nature of the corporate life. The purpose 
of this chapter is not, of course, to present a theory of so¬ 
ciety or to offer a systematic treatment of the subject, but 
only to direct attention to certain features of society of 
which account has to be taken in Christian action. 

1. THE ORGANIC ASPECT OF THE CORPORATE LIFE 

The corporate life is at once something which men create 
and something into which they are born. The fact that a 
man cannot choose or exchange his parents illustrates the 
truth that the corporate life is made up in part of facts 
already given wholly independently of the will of the indi¬ 
vidual. The family is a primordial fact from which a man 
cannot free himself, a fact which carries and conditions his 
whole existence. From his parents he inherits certain phys¬ 
ical and mental characteristics. He also acquires from 
them and from the environment into which he is born a 
certain outlook on life. Through his family, neighbor¬ 
hood and nation he is the heir of a particular cultural tra¬ 
dition. He participates in the life of a particular people 
and in its historical experiences. To reflect on these facts 
is to realize how far removed from reality is any view which 
thinks of life in terms only of individuals. The life of the 

162 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 163 

individual is inextricably rooted in a biological and histori¬ 
cal context which in a thousand ways conditions and influ¬ 
ences his whole existence. These organic solidarities at the 
basis of human existence have a profound significance for 
the development of the moral and Christian life. For the 
Christian they are the creation of divine Providence for 
the purpose of helping and supporting his moral growth, 
and the divinely appointed sphere in which he is called to 
serve God. Through participation in them he is involved 
in a network of responsibilities and obligations the fulfill¬ 
ment of which ministers to his growth as a person. These 
organic bonds, however, are not only the natural soil in 
which the moral life may grow; they may also be a limiting 
factor and interpose obstacles to its growth. Here is found 
one of the great paradoxes of the corporate life. The 
claims of these natural solidarities must in the name of a 
higher loyalty both be acknowledged and on occasion also 
denied. 


2. THE PURSUIT OF COMMON PURPOSES 

A second distinctive feature of the common life is that 
men, in virtue of their rational and social nature, are as¬ 
sociated in an endless variety of ways for the achievement 
of common purposes. Cooperation in the pursuit of com¬ 
mon ends is characteristic of the life of family and of na¬ 
tion, with their biological foundations, no less than of 
voluntary associations formed for specific purposes. An il¬ 
luminating exposition of this aspect of the corporate life is 
given in Professor Barker’s introductory essay in his trans¬ 
lation of Gierke’s Natural Law and the Theory of Society. 
Rejecting the view that associations are to be regarded as 
beings, or minds, or real persons, he finds the distinguish¬ 
ing mark of a group or association in a common and con¬ 
tinuing purpose, “ which permanently unites a number 


164 The Church and Its Function in Society 

of individuals as the common content of their minds and 
the common intention of their wills.” 1 This common 
purpose is not something immutable and invariable; it is 
something living, growing and changing. All these vari¬ 
ous, partial, common purposes which constitute the being 
and unity of groups have to be related to the general com¬ 
mon purpose of the state, and it is the distinctive function 
of the state to hold the balance between the conflicting pur¬ 
poses of groups and to see that they do not oppose or de¬ 
stroy the general common purpose of which it is the spe¬ 
cial trustee . 2 

This fact of association with others in carrying out the 
purposes by which the community maintains, expands and 
enriches its own life gives rise to one of the main problems 
of which account has to be taken in considering Christian 
action in the corporate life. Where there is purpose there 
may be divergence of purpose. The purpose of the Chris¬ 
tian is to carry out in all relations the will of God. But in 
every group of which he is a member, whether it be the 
nation or the state, or a voluntary association such as a 
trades union or employers’ federation or an educational 
institution, he may be, and generally is, associated with 
those who do not share this Christian purpose. The group 
has a common purpose which is not identical with the 
Christian’s purpose, but the realization of that purpose, 
notwithstanding the imperfections of the process, is neces¬ 
sary for human existence or welfare. When this conflict of 
purposes arises, the Christian is confronted with the choice 
of withdrawing from an association the aim of which he 
feels to be incompatible with his Christian calling (such 
withdrawal being possible in the case of a voluntary asso¬ 
ciation but not as a rule in the case of the nation or the 
state), or of remaining a member of the association and 
1 P. lxiii. 2 pp. lxxix-lxxx. 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 165 

seeking, by protest or by the quality of his own action, to 
bring the common purpose into fuller accord with what he 
believes to be the will of God. For the solution of conflicts 
between contradictory purposes there can be no easy, gen¬ 
eral or universally valid solution. Such conflicts are the 
stuff of life. They arise in an endless multiplicity of new 
and unrepeatable situations. There is no escape for the 
individual from the responsibility of decision. In these 
responsible choices life finds its meaning. The only thing 
that men take with them when the end comes is the charac¬ 
ter formed by their decisions. 

Whatever else may have to be said about the corporate 
life, we must never allow ourselves to be carried too far 
from the solid truth on which Professor Barker insists, 
namely, that groups, from the village or club to the state 
or nation, are essentially “ organizations of persons, or 
schemes of personal relations . . . constructed by the 
thought of persons, consisting in the thought of persons, 
sustained by the thought of persons and revised (or even 
destroyed) by the thought of persons.” 3 It is necessary 
to ask, however, whether corporate life does not also con¬ 
tain complicating factors that lie outside the sphere of de¬ 
liberate purpose. 


3. THE LAWS OF THINGS 

Men achieve their purposes, whether individual or com¬ 
mon, only through the use of things. Even when they seek 
to serve one another as persons they have to use things as a 
means of rendering the service. The things which are in¬ 
strumental to human purpose are governed by their own 
laws. Material things and their laws are a limiting factor 
in all human action. The dialectical materialism of Karl 
Marx is the assertion, though in an exaggerated and one- 

3 Pp. xvi-xvii. 


166 The Church and Its Function in Society 

sided way, of an important truth in its insistence on the 
extent to which men’s ideas and behavior are conditioned 
by their material environment. Christian action in the 
corporate life, like all other action, has to take account of 
the nature of reality. The Christian scientist has to express 
his Christianity in being a good scientist. What society 
rightly expects of the Christian engineer is not that he 
should exhibit exemplary piety apart from his profession, 
but that he should be a competent and efficient engineer. 
The Christian who expresses an opinion about the relation 
of Christian principles to the economic system must be pre¬ 
pared, even at the cost of many a bad headache, to master 
the facts of the economic system. The patient study of and 
humble submission to the laws of things is one expression 
of the Christian’s trust in God who ordered the world as it 
is; at the same time it is a divinely appointed discipline for 
deepening, educating and enriching spiritual life. 

4. THE LAWS OF INSTITUTIONS 

Not only things but human institutions are subject to 
laws of their own which have to be understood and re¬ 
spected. These institutions, constituted by persons for 
the achievement of their purposes, not only are subject to 
natural conditions which control their working but tend to 
acquire a momentum and energy of their own. 

The economic system, for example, is the result of a 
multitude of individual purposes acting on the material 
resources and with the instruments available at a given 
period. But no one can say that the results of the existing 
system were consciously and deliberately willed by anyone. 
It is only too evident that man has become enslaved by 
forces which his own purposes have brought into exist¬ 
ence. Men may often have to act in a way entirely con- 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 167 

trary to that which they would wish in order to maintain 
in operation a system which human purposes have brought 
into existence, and whose immediate collapse would spell 
disaster for society. There arises a fundamental and ines¬ 
capable conflict of responsibilities, in which men can fulfill 
their duty to society in one respect only by violating their 
obligations to it in another. A company may do things in 
the interests of its shareholders which its directors might 
hesitate to do as individuals, and it may refrain, and ought 
often to refrain, from doing things which individuals are 
free to do. In modern society, as Sir Josiah Stamp has said, 
there is found “ the complication, insignificant in the time 
of Christ, of group relations, where ethical judgment is 
made on behalf of the individual in some delegated area of 
his rights without engaging his whole ethical personality.” 4 
It is impossible to exaggerate the fundamental change 
which is taking place in the conditions of human life 
through the multiplication and intensification of group 
activities which science and technical invention have 
brought about. We may agree with Professor Barker in 
refusing to regard groups as persons, or to ascribe to them 
a real mind independent of the minds of the persons com¬ 
posing them. But the association of persons in common 
activities, whether in a business enterprise or in cultural 
pursuits or in the community of a nation, establishes in 
the course of time a tradition, accumulates recognized 
principles of action, and creates a spirit — all of which im¬ 
pose themselves on all members of the group and can be 
changed only by a long, slow and gradual process. Forms 
of conduct become habitual and, once established, operate 
in society as forces independent of the conscious choices of 
individuals. It may be true that moral responsibility (as 
4 Motive and Method in a Christian Order, p. 41. 


168 The Church and Its Function in Society 


distinct from legal responsibility) cannot be attached to a 
group. But in so far as this is true it follows that society, 
confronted with the unceasing growth of group life, if it is 
not to suffer spiritual disintegration must address itself to 
the immense task of discovering the real centers of respon¬ 
sibility in group activities and of creating in the members 
of groups the sense of moral responsibility for their com¬ 
mon activities. 

It need not surprise us that serious minds ask the ques¬ 
tion whether the Christian ethic, with its emphasis on the 
direct responsibility of persons toward other persons, is 
adequate to meet the needs of modern society. Even if 
the church were to be wholly loyal to its faith and were 
fully to discharge its functions, it is urged, this would not 
suffice for the needs of modern society. A recent work 
maintains that 

neither the cardinal virtues of the Greeks, nor the Christian 
virtues of faith, hope and charity, nor yet the fruits of the Spirit, 
outlined by St. Paul, such as meekness, gentleness, longsuffer- 
ing and so forth, are able to establish themselves as the essen¬ 
tially vital attitudes which it is necessary to adopt in order to 
live fully and adequately, and to meet the demands which life 
makes upon men. The dwindling private relationships of men 
call for these, but not the work of the world . 5 

Speaking out of an exceptionally wide experience in in¬ 
dustrial and public life, Sir Josiah Stamp urges that “ the 
whole body of ethics needs to be recast in the mold of mod¬ 
ern corporate relations.” 6 

5. THE NATION AND THE STATE 

A discussion of the problems of nation and state does not 
belong to this volume. The profound complications to 
which these problems give rise in human relations must, 

5 E. E. Thomas, A Prelude to Religion, pp. 248-49. 

6 Op. cit., p. 41. 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 169 

however, be clearly before us in the consideration of Chris¬ 
tian action in the corporate life. 

In this field the conflict between the principles which 
should govern the relations of persons with other persons 
and the necessities of public action reaches its most acute 
point. The nation and the state are custodians of a his¬ 
toric life, of traditions and institutions which have grown 
through a long period of time. They have the responsi¬ 
bilities of trustees. The state has to act on behalf of the 
community as a whole; consequently it must be guided by 
the general sentiment, not by ideals which may be cher¬ 
ished by a small minority of the community. As things are 
at present nation and state are not subject, like the indi¬ 
vidual, to a higher authority or to the reign of law, nor 
does there exist among different peoples any living con¬ 
sciousness of community on which a world order might be 
based. Therefore the affairs of states must be guided by 
principles quite other than those which regulate the con¬ 
duct of individuals in their relations with other individuals. 
The problem is forcibly stated in the following passage from 
the Life of Archbishop Magee: 

It was to him perfectly clear that a state could not continue 
to exist on the condition of carrying out all Christian precepts 
for the individual, and their Lord said so. He said, “ My king¬ 
dom is not of this world.” It was, therefore, a huge mistake to 
attempt to turn his kingdom into a kingdom of this world, or 
to turn the kingdoms of the world into his kingdom. Again, he 
thought they could not speak of the state as if it was an indi¬ 
vidual and apply all the maxims of individual ethics absolutely 
to it. The state was not an individual. It was a trustee for a 
great many individuals. . . . The great law of the church of 
Christ was self-sacrifice, and the motive power of that law was 
love. The principle of the state was justice, and the motive 
power of the state was force, and that was the essential differ¬ 
ence between the two . 7 

7 Life of Archbishop Magee, II, 276, quoted by the Bishop of Durham 
in Christian Morality, p. 254. 


170 The Church and Its Function in Society 

When Professor Barker finds the essence of the state in 
a purpose of law , 8 he is emphasizing only one side of the 
ambiguous entity of the state. There is in the state also a 
natural, non-rational element — the brute fact of power. 
Might is inseparable from the existence of the state. It be¬ 
longs to its nature to use force both in self-defense against 
external enemies and as a means of controlling its own 
members. Even when it is not exercised force is always 
present in the background as a resource to which appeal 
may be made when occasion requires. Between the coer¬ 
cion which is inseparable from political life and the Chris¬ 
tian law of love there is an insurmountable tension. 

6 . THE SOURCES OF SOCIAL EVIL 

Professor John Bennett in an enlightening contribution 
to The Christian Faith and the Common Life has called 
attention to the variety and multiplicity of the sources of 
social evil. He utters a needed warning against the temp¬ 
tation unduly to simplify the problem. Action in the so¬ 
cial and political field is conditioned today by the scale of 
social organization and by the rapidity of change. Men’s 
faculties of sight and hearing are no greater than they were 
when civilization began; their minds and memories have 
not increased in capacity; their working day has not grown 
in length. Yet with these continuing limitations men have 
to deal with problems which, owing to the increase of scale, 
have become different not merely in degree but in kind. 
Again, the pace of development has become so rapid that 
situations change far more swiftly than the patterns of 
thought with which men try to meet them. The situation 
has become so complex that it is impossible to foresee the 
results of any action, a dilemma that leaves men bewildered 
and paralyzed. Even where good will is present men do 
not know how to translate it into action. 

s Natural Law and the Theory of Society, p. lxxxvii. 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 


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171 

The evils of society are the result not only of human sin 
but also of human finitude. Vast and terrible as are men’s 
crimes, deep and pitiful as are their moral lethargy and spir¬ 
itual torpor, there are evils in society for which no one can 
be held morally responsible. Nature, Bergson tells us , 9 has 
willed that men should have a social life, but also that it 
should be limited in range. Men have been created with 
small-scale minds. The range of their imagination, the 
compass of their interests, are restricted. These badges of 
their finitude limit the good which they are often disposed 
to do. Ill-health, lack of physical fitness, fatigue, the effects 
of age with its hardening of the mind, the specialization 
of modern society by which men become so immersed in a 
particular task that they have no leisure or energy to think 
in wider terms, the crust of prejudices, the emotional mal¬ 
adjustments from which as the result of a defective educa¬ 
tion in home and school the majority of men suffer in 
greater or less degree — these and many other factors, enu¬ 
merated by Professor Bennett, combining in an infinite 
variety of subtle ways with human egoism, pride and moral 
weakness, are among the obstacles that have to be sur¬ 
mounted in any attempt to improve society. Programs of 
social reform are sometimes put forward which would re¬ 
quire for their realization the re-education of the entire 
community. Before they could be carried out the prevail¬ 
ing patterns of thought and feeling would need to be 
wholly changed. 

When we turn to the moral evil in society, which it is 
the special concern of the church to combat, there opens 
up a question on which Christian thought is divided, but 
which involves issues too important and far-reaching to be 
ignored. There are those who would attribute the evils of 
society wholly to human ignorance and the perversity of 
human wills. 

9 Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion, chapter 1. 


V 


172 The Church and Its Function in Society 

In tragic life, God wot. 

No villains need be. Passions spin the plot. 

We are betrayed by what is false within. 

Even if this be true, the evil which is in men’s hearts and 
thoughts permeates and infects the whole social order. It 
gathers force through its collective expression. It embodies 
itself in false philosophies of life which dominate the whole 
temper of an age and in perverted relations between men 
which issue in deepening hatred, distrust and conflict. 

There are others, however, to whom it appears that evil 
has a deeper source. They detect in the universe a destruc¬ 
tive or demonic principle operating beyond the range of 
human volition; or they accept the biblical view of the ex¬ 
istence of a superhuman evil will or wills. 

Confronted with the breaking forth of repressed ele¬ 
ments in our civilization and of wild and untamed forces, 
and equipped with the new knowledge of human nature 
provided by analytical psychology, men are today more 
fully aware than previously of the dark, irrational forces 
which surround and underlie human existence. Man is 
less secure in his control of things than former generations 
were disposed to believe. Human personality does not sit 
enthroned above the conflict directing its course, but may 
itself become the plaything of hidden powers. “ We can 
no longer deny,” writes Professor C. G. Jung, “ that the 
dark stirrings of the unconscious are effective powers — 
that psychic forces exist which cannot, for the present at 
least, be fitted in with our rational world order.” 10 There 
is a deepened awareness of the powerful, hidden, nameless 
forces on which human life is borne as on a tide and out of 
which consciousness arises to illuminate, as some would 
say, for a brief moment, like a flickering candle, the sur¬ 
rounding darkness. In contrast with the view of human 
'io Modern Man in Search of a Soul , p. 234. 


The Nature of the Corporate Life 173 

reason as independent of race or history or economic cir¬ 
cumstances, men are aware today how profoundly its exer¬ 
cise is influenced by all these factors. The irrational, hid¬ 
den forces which modern psychology has revealed in the 
individual life underlie the whole of human existence. To 
ignore these unfathomable forces is to fail to understand the 
tragic nature of human existence. 

The consciousness of conflict with superhuman forces of 
evil cannot easily be eliminated from the Bible or from the 
life of Christ. Professor Heim has recently reminded us 11 
how fundamental in the life of Jesus was the conflict with 
satanic powers. His whole ministry was a continuous war 
with the forces of evil. His death was not simply the re¬ 
sult of a struggle between competing ideas or views of life, 
but the final, terrible, decisive battle against an evil will 
that was set on defeating the purpose of God. When divine 
goodness became incarnate the one in whom it was em¬ 
bodied was rejected and crucified. 

The issue has been raised because the view we take of 
the nature of evil in the universe must profoundly affect 
our understanding of the Christian action that is demanded 
in the corporate life. If we believe the primary source of 
evil to lie in the ignorance and perversity of men, we may 
hope by a process of education and enlightenment progres¬ 
sively to mitigate the evils from which society is suffering. 
But if we have to war against a destructive principle in the 
universe itself and against superhuman powers of evil, the 
struggle assumes a grimmer and sterner aspect. We cannot 
in our own strength contend successfully against satanic 
powers. The fellowship of the church gains a new and 
deepened meaning, since only in the might of that fellow¬ 
ship and of the divine redemption which is its source can 
we become victors over all the powers of darkness. 

11 Jesus der Herr, pp. 104-5, 111-1 3 - 


IX 

THE WITNESS AND ACTION OF THE CHURCH 
IN THE CORPORATE LIFE 


1. THE NECESSITY OF THE EXPRESSION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 
IN THE CORPORATE LIFE 

hristian faith must express itself in the corporate life. 



There is no other sphere in which it can express itself. 
Christians, like other men, are members of society. They 
participate in the activities of the common life. The ways 
of serving God in the world are infinite in variety, but none 
are related to the common life. To live is to act, and action 
is invariably conditioned in greater or less degree by the 
prevailing practice, customs and institutions of society. 

It is not surprising that in face of the complexities of the 
corporate life Christians should be tempted to make a sepa¬ 
ration between the sphere of public action and the inner 
life of the soul. The corporate life appears to be dominated 
by forces that are irreconcilable with the Christian spirit 
of love. But to turn aside from the activities and struggles 
of common men is an evasion of Christian responsibility. 
The Christian is called to fulfill God’s will not in some re¬ 
mote and future world but here and now in relation to the 
reality which encompasses, challenges and resists us. Faith 
in God is real only as it confronts the particulars of his¬ 
tory. Only by acting in accordance with God’s will in the 
concrete historical situation in which he has placed us can 
we enter into fellowship with God in the full reality of our 
being. As Professor Brunner has written, retreat from the 
actual world would mean that “ real action would be en- 


174 


The Church in Corporate Life 175 

tirely withdrawn from the influence of the Christian ethic. 
It is here, in this borderland between technical action and 
ethics — in economics, in politics, in public life — that the 
great decisions are made. If the Christian ethic fails at this 
point, it fails all along the line.” 1 

This insistence is all the more necessary in face of the 
modern attack on Christianity. It is vital that the church 
open its mind to the full force of this attack. The essence 
of religion, it is maintained, is the creation of an ideal and 
imaginary world which offers consolation for the inevitable 
frustrations of life. By so doing it diverts men’s minds from 
the struggle in which the reality of human life consists — 
the struggle to create freedom and community in the world, 
not of idea, but of fact. Religion is inimical to man’s true 
welfare since it offers him an unreal consolation for mate¬ 
rial injustices and provides him with an escape from the 
struggles of society. It is not a sufficient answer to these 
charges to say that Christianity is concerned with other and 
higher goods than those which men are seeking. For the 
sting of the attack is that the cultivation of the religious life 
of the individual, instead of identifying him more deeply 
with other men in their struggle and need, detaches him 
from the common lot. If that charge can be driven home 
Christianity will have been betrayed by its own professors. 
For it will mean that Christianity has nothing to do with 
the concrete experiences and open conflicts of life, and con¬ 
sequently is without importance for the life which men 
actually have to live. 

2 . THE CHURCH AS AN ORGANIZED SOCIETY AND AS A 
COMMUNITY LIVING IN THE WORLD 

The starting point of a discussion of the witness and ac¬ 
tion of the church in the corporate life must be the far- 
1 The Divine Imperative, p. 262. 


176 The Church and Its Function in Society 

reaching distinction made in an earlier chapter 2 between 
the church as a society organized for worship and the preach¬ 
ing of the Word, and the church as a community of men 
and women living in the world but committed through 
faith in Christ to a new outlook on life and a new way of 
living. The witness and action of the church as an organ¬ 
ized society, and as such distinct and separate from other 
forms of human association, and the witness and action of 
the church through its individual members who at the same 
time in an endless variety of callings participate in the ac¬ 
tivities of these other associations, are two entirely distinct 
though intimately related questions. Much confusion of 
thought has resulted from failure clearly to distinguish be¬ 
tween them. While both forms of witness and action are 
essential and while the two are inseparably connected, in 
discussing the witness and action of the church in the cor¬ 
porate life we tend as a rule to think of what can be done by 
the church acting in its corporate capacity, whereas in fact 
what can be accomplished by lay men and women actively 
engaged from day to day in the affairs of the world is in¬ 
comparably greater in range, effectiveness and importance. 
The church as an organized society stands outside the 
activities of the social and political life. The Christian 
laity participates in these activities. Transformation from 
within is immeasurably more effective than any influence 
that can be brought to bear from without. 

In the present chapter we shall examine this influence 
from within which is exercised through the lives of Chris¬ 
tian men and women, reserving for the next chapter the 
consideration of the witness and action of the church as 
an organized society. But while it is important for the pur¬ 
pose of discussion, and in order that matters of vital impor¬ 
tance may not be overlooked, to distinguish these two forms 
2 Pp. 143 ff. 


The Church in Corporate Life 177 

of action, they belong inseparably together and have their 
springs in a common life. It is the one indivisible church 
which expresses its life both in its corporate action and in 
the lives of its individual members. 

It may seem to some that if this is what is meant it would 
be simpler and clearer, in the title and text of this chapter, 
to speak of the witness and action of Christians rather than 
of the witness and action of the church. But this change 
would cut at the root of the whole argument. The point 
on which we wish most of all to insist is that Christian ac¬ 
tion in the corporate life, though it is the action of individ¬ 
uals, does not mean isolated action but action by Christians 
as members of the church. It is action springing out of the 
reality of the Christian fellowship, rooted in obedience to 
the Word which the church proclaims, inspired and guided 
by its ministries, supported by its prayers, and examined 
and tested in intercourse with other Christians. It is with 
the church as a divine society that we are concerned in this 
chapter as much as in the chapter which follows. But while 
there we shall be dealing with the church acting through its 
official representatives, our present concern is with the 
manifestation of the life of the church in the whole body 
of its members. 

3. THE WITNESS AND ACTION OF THE CHRISTIAN LAITY 

The distinction which we have emphasized coincides, 
not entirely but in part, with the distinction between the 
functions of the clergy or Christian ministry and the re¬ 
sponsibilities of the lay members of the church. 

The basis of our argument is that Christian faith can 
be a transforming and creative force in the corporate life 
only to the extent to which it takes possession of the minds 
of multitudes of lay men and women and provides the prin¬ 
ciples by which their conduct in private and public life is 


178 The Church and Its Function in Society 

determined. There are, of course, already large numbers 
of lay men and women who are loyal members of the 
church and who by the integrity and unselfishness of their 
lives offer a convincing witness to the faith they profess. 
Such lives are the salt of society. 

But when we consider how this Christian lay activity may 
be greatly multiplied we are confronted by problems which 
call for the most serious attention. As has already been 
pointed out , 3 there is a far wider gap than there ought to 
be between the church as an organized society and the lay 
world. Many lay men and women who are conscious of 
religious need long in their secret hearts for the help they 
feel the church might give them, but they do not find that 
the church satisfies that need. It is not a real solution of 
this problem to say that the fault lies in themselves, that 
they are closing their hearts to the Christian message and 
that the church must just go on trying to convert them. 
It is at least possible that the fault lies equally in our own 
presentation of the gospel and in its expression in the pres¬ 
ent institutional forms of the church. We have neither 
seen the problem, nor is there any hope of solving it, if we 
assume, as we are too likely to do, that what is wanted is 
mainly a redoubling of our efforts to persuade people to 
come to church and to contribute more liberally to church 
funds or to take a hand in church work. All this is right 
and necessary, but it attacks the problem from only one 
side. The problem must be attacked from both sides if a 
real solution is to be found. It may be that the church in 
its present institutional form is not adapted to the real needs 
of the lay world. 

If the gap is to be bridged, new methods must be devised 
for getting into touch with lay men and women other than 
inviting them to participate in the present services and 
3 p. 95 - 


The Church in Corporate Life 179 

activities of the church. Churchmen and those who are 
distrustful of the church must come together, not on the 
basis, expressed or implied, that those outside must repent 
and return to the fold of their fathers (though the neces¬ 
sity of repentance on the part of all concerned is not in 
question), but on a basis of equal and frank discussion and 
a common readiness to learn. Beginnings have been made 
in this direction, for example (to take only one illustration 
which happens to be within my own knowledge), in week¬ 
end gatherings arranged by some Anglican bishops for lay¬ 
men in their dioceses. But if the gap is as wide and serious 
as it appears to be the task of restoring connections between 
the preaching, teaching and institutional activities of the 
church and the life of our time demands the adoption of 
new methods on a vastly increased scale. If that task is to 
be undertaken successfully it will certainly require the de¬ 
velopment of new types of ministry, including probably lay 
ministries. The vital matter is that, in addition to present 
forms of ministry — the necessity for which is not in ques¬ 
tion — approaches to the lay world need to be devised, not 
on the assumption that the church is all right and that those 
who hold aloof from it are wrong, but in the belief that it 
is an open question whether churchmen may not be far 
wrong and that many things in the church may need to be 
changed. 

That is, however, only one side, though a most important 
side, of the problem. It is essential that in attempting to 
deal with it we never forget that our concern from first to 
last is with the rule of God, and not with the laity just be¬ 
cause they are laity. In insisting that there is need to dis¬ 
cuss with those outside the church, on a basis of complete 
equality and with a deep humility and readiness to learn, 
what they feel to be lacking or amiss in its ministries, we do 
not for a moment mean that the ideas and desires of the 


180 The Church and Its Function in Society 

natural man have any word in determining the nature of 
the church. Christ is the one and only Head of any church 
that is entitled to be called Christian. There is no sugges¬ 
tion that those who have never given their loyalty to Christ 
or been converted to the Christian understanding of life 
should transform the church into a cultural association or 
philanthropic society or something other than the church 
of Christ. Such a change would mean not the reformation 
but the end of the church. When we speak of action by the 
laity we mean always and only specifically Christian action, 
the action of those who acknowledge allegiance to Christ 
and who are growing in an understanding of the obliga¬ 
tions of the Christian life. 

4. LINES OF ADVANCE 

If the problem is to be taken effectively in hand, advance 
must be made in three main directions. 

In the first place, the attempt must be made to relate the 
spiritual and pastoral ministries of the church more di¬ 
rectly and intimately to the specific tasks of the common 
life. Large congregational services cannot enter with suf¬ 
ficient fullness and in sufficient detail into the problems 
which specially concern individuals or particular groups. 
If the wide gulf which exists in the modern world between 
work and worship is to be bridged we must discover means 
by which the actualities of daily life are lifted up into wor¬ 
ship and the common round of activities is sanctified and 
fortified by prayer. Endeavors to meet the needs of spe¬ 
cial groups are, of course, not lacking in the present minis¬ 
tries of the church. But much fresh, creative thought needs 
to be given to the problem, and new experiments are needed 
in many directions. There may be room, for example, for 
a large extension of the movement to provide for lay men 
and women retreats in which they can face the problems 


The Church in Corporate Life i 8 i 

and occupations of their lives in an atmosphere of worship. 
As the best means of meeting the need is discovered, new 
types of ministry will be required to supplement the present 
parochial and congregational ministries. 

Second, there is need for much more definite ethical 
guidance. In the baffling complexities of life today it is 
extraordinarily difficult for the individual Christian to 
know what Christian loyalty demands in practical conduct. 
It is impossible for him alone and unaided to think his way 
through the problems, and if he is left without help it is 
not surprising if he loses heart and acquiesces resignedly in 
the prevailing standards and practices of society. The view 
which would lay on the individual the whole burden of 
responsibility to discover in each concrete situation what 
is God’s will is a heroic but unreal conception. The indi¬ 
vidual Christian needs the guidance and support of the 
Christian society. While the church has a body of fairly 
clear and definite teaching in regard to Christian obliga¬ 
tions in the sphere of personal relationships — though even 
in this field there is urgent need for fresh and constructive 
thought in many directions — it has little authoritative 
guidance to offer about what is right or wrong in the sphere 
of public conduct. 

Help toward a clearer understanding of the ethical im¬ 
plications of the gospel must come in part from thinkers 
and scholars. But indispensable as is their contribution, it 
is no less essential that groups of Christians associate them¬ 
selves in seeking light and mutual support in dealing with 
the problems that are their special and immediate concern. 

A third important line of advance, therefore, is the mul¬ 
tiplication of small groups of Christians for the purpose of 
mutual help in Christian witness and action. 

These groups may be local, having as their primary 
concern the social evils of a particular town or rural area. 


182 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Their objects may be primarily spiritual, i.e., to sustain and 
fortify through prayer and fellowship those who seek to 
advance the cause of righteousness, to relieve distress and 
to serve the common good in various forms of public activ¬ 
ity. Or the groups may have a specific social objective 
of putting an end to some local injustice or meeting some 
local need. No Christian congregation can escape its re¬ 
sponsibilities to its immediate neighborhood. If through 
the faithful preaching of the gospel men and women com¬ 
mit themselves to war against the devil and all his works, 
their first duty is to find out what injustices there are to be 
removed and what miseries and want to be relieved in the 
immediate neighborhood. The life of the church would 
be revitalized if in every parish or congregation there were 
groups of Christian men and women banded together for 
this purpose, developing through the discipline of the con¬ 
flict with social evil a growingly sensitive Christian con¬ 
science. 

Other groups may have a predominantly professional 
character. This suggestion has been put forward by Dr. 
Ernest Johnson: 

The possibilities of religious education on the adult level 
have scarcely been touched. It would seem to need no argu¬ 
ment that a religious communion entertaining definite social 
ideals and acknowledging an educational responsibility should 
have a program for every functional group within its member¬ 
ship. ... If religious education is to become significant with 
reference to the ethical standards of the adult generation, it 
must make provision for the study by functional groups — law¬ 
yers, physicians, engineers, teachers, labor leaders, bankers and 
many others — of the ideals of the religion to which they claim 
allegiance in their bearing upon vocational tasks . 4 

A similar suggestion has been made in a paper from Ger¬ 
many, where small but promising experiments have been 
made in this direction. 

4 The Church and Society, pp. 205-6. 


The Church in Corporate Life 183 

Wherever there has been an enduring revival of Chris¬ 
tianity it has generally found expression in the spontaneous 
activity of small groups meeting for mutual encouragement, 
fellowship and common effort. The conception of “ cells ” 
is wholly congruous with the genius of Christianity. May 
not the formation of such cells of Christian witness and 
service be the distinctive Christian contribution to the so¬ 
cial and political struggles of our time? To be effectively 
changed a social system must be changed from within and 
in all its parts. This leaves entirely open the question at 
what stage a radical change of the whole system is required 
in order to allow the new, constructive forces the opportu¬ 
nity of further expansion. But to make an outward change 
of system while the mind remains unconverted and the old 
habits persist can result only in disillusionment; the exist¬ 
ing evils will merely assume another form. The only order 
which can be a really better order is one in which there is 
a greater sense of responsibility of men toward men, and 
that responsibility is something that grows through exer¬ 
cise and must be learned and practiced in lesser spheres 
before it can be effectively exercised in wider fields. It has 
to be learned first in the family, in the neighborhood, in 
local government, in professional associations, in various 
social groupings. It is unrealistic to suppose that a nation 
can order successfully its political and economic life in the 
national sphere unless it can call to its service persons who 
have been trained to civic responsibility. If we try to en¬ 
visage a church fully alive to its responsibilities in the so¬ 
cial and political fields, ought not the picture in our minds 
to be one of the growth of a multitude of centers of spon¬ 
taneous activity in which Christians associate themselves 
to bear Christian witness in their neighborhood or profes¬ 
sion, to war against evil where they encounter it in daily* 
life and in the immediate environment which is in some 
measure under their control? In proportion as such groups 


184 The Church and Its Function in Society 

increased there would arise a force in the life of a people 
capable of transforming its institutions and of bringing 
about a true revolution. 

5. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 

In order to advance along the lines suggested, the Chris- 
tion ministry have an indispensable contribution to make. 
It is their privilege as ministers of the Word and the sacra¬ 
ments to bring to the witness and service of Christian men 
and women actively engaged in the affairs of the world the 
reinforcement, enlargement and discipline of Christian 
worship. It is not necessary to add to what has already been 
said on this subject . 5 

The immense task of relating Christian preaching and 
teaching more directly to the thought and experiences of 
the common life confronts the church in our day. Too 
often the presentation of the Christian message is couched 
in traditional and conventional phraseology which conveys 
little or no meaning to the ordinary man. It is not merely 
a question of language but of the whole approach to reli¬ 
gious questions. If this difficulty is to be overcome it is 
necessary that Christian ministers set themselves deliber¬ 
ately to learn as well as to teach. From the laity may be 
learned lessons of life that find no place in the curriculum 
of the theological college. This possibility is easy to con¬ 
cede in theory but difficult to carry out in practice. The 
laity are shy and reserved in the presence of the clergy. The 
traditional relationship of teacher and taught, pastor and 
flock, stands in the way of intercourse on a basis of complete 
equality. Only by a resolute effort of will and by the hu¬ 
mility born of prayer can the barrier be broken down and 
conditions created in which the minister may be learner as 
well as teacher. Opportunities may offer, or may be made, 

5 pp. 143 ff. 


The Church in Corporate Life 185 

of participation in groups of representatives of various 
walks of life, in which the problems of individual respon¬ 
sibility in industry, in the professions and in social better¬ 
ment are freely discussed, and in which the minister claims 
no initiative but takes part, not as one who already possesses 
the answer or the final truth, but on a footing of equality 
as a man among men. 

Reference has already been made, and will be made fur¬ 
ther, to the need for ethical guidance. The extent to which 
such new insights as may be gained permeate the whole 
Christian body and lead to fruitful action will depend in 
a large degree on the teaching of the ordinary ministry. 
More systematic provision needs to be made for the ethical 
education of the laity and in particular of the young. Sev¬ 
eral American correspondents have drawn attention to the 
wide differences of outlook tending to prevail in the United 
States between pulpit and pew in regard to standards of 
social obligation. Preaching and teaching ought to include 
explicit and continuous instruction on the social relevance 
of the Christian faith. It is necessary to draw out the inex¬ 
haustible wealth of meaning in the essential values that are 
implied in the Christian understanding of life — the in¬ 
finite value of men for whom Christ died, the sacredness 
of personality, the claim of every child to have the oppor¬ 
tunity of bringing to the largest fruition what is in him, 
the dangers of wealth, to which the Gospels so frequently 
refer, the responsibility of men for one another’s lives. To 
these values teaching point may be given by showing the 
extent to which they are denied and contradicted by exist¬ 
ing conditions. The facts about the present social system 
have to be brought home to the imagination. The teach¬ 
ings of the New Testament become alive only when their 
connection with the actual life of today is clearly seen. 
People need to be helped to see through the rationalizations 


186 The Church and Its Function in Society 

by which they hide from themselves the true facts and to 
understand the extent to which their opinions and attitudes 
are determined by the interests of the social group to which 
they belong. 

It is impossible to rate too highly the opportunities of 
the evangelistic, teaching and pastoral work of the Chris¬ 
tian ministry. In the parish and congregation are the lay 
men and women who by their witness and action can bring 
about profound transformations in the social life. In them 
also are the young, who will carry the public responsibili¬ 
ties of the future. Whatever changes may be needed in 
institutions, it is certain that these changes will accomplish 
little unless they are accompanied by changes in the men 
and women who have to work them. There cannot be a 
better society apart from better men and women. “ How to 
break the vicious circle,” writes a distinguished economist 
of liberal and advanced views in a paper contributed to the 
preparatory work for the conference, “ that you will not 
have better men without a better society, and that you can 
get a better society only if at least an important minority 
has reached a higher standard of conduct — this is the cru¬ 
cial point in all our discussions.” In urging that the su¬ 
preme concern of the Christian ministry is with the making 
of better men and women we are not advocating an indi¬ 
vidualistic gospel. What we envisage is poles removed from 
the concentration of interest on the saving of individual 
souls. It is that a church aflame with social passion should 
recognize that the largest contribution of the Christian min¬ 
istry to social transformation is an indirect one, and that the 
awaking, educating and spiritual encouragement of those 
who bear the varied responsibilities of the corporate life is 
the highest and most rewarding strategy. 

What has been said has been written in full awareness 
of the multiplicity of burdens which the Christian minister 


The Church in Corporate Life 187 

has to carry today. The variety of demands on him leaves 
little leisure for fresh tasks. If these tasks are to be under¬ 
taken, it will be necessary for some to find a means of eman¬ 
cipating themselves from the bondage of the machine and 
to subordinate claims of secondary importance to what re¬ 
quires most urgently to be done. If large progress is to be 
made, however, the necessity will arise of setting aside spe¬ 
cially prepared men to undertake new forms of service. 

6 . A NEW ORIENTATION 

Our plea in this chapter is for a fresh orientation and a 
new perspective of thought on the witness and action of 
the church in the corporate life. As will be plain from 
what is said in the following chapter, there is no intention 
of belittling the witness of the church in its corporate ca¬ 
pacity in public affairs. Without this reinforcement the 
witness of individual Christians will lack a proper setting 
and in consequence will lose much of its efficacy. But since 
the transformation of social life must be brought about, not 
by influence exerted from without, but by forces working 
from within, we misconceive the church’s task in the social 
sphere when we think of it primarily and mainly in terms 
of action by the church as an organized society. 

It is the members of the church who discharge the re¬ 
sponsibilities of the common life in a countless variety of 
occupations and in an infinite multiplicity of daily acts and 
decisions that are the leaven which leavens the whole lump. 
In this faithful, silent witness they are fulfilling the priestly 
function of the church. They permeate with the spirit of 
Christian love the varied relations of men with one an¬ 
other and make them kindlier, humaner and more whole¬ 
some. By their understanding of the true ends of life they 
unobtrusively criticize the standards of society and subtly 
change the attitude of their fellows. By performing their 


188 The Church and Its Function in Society 

tasks in dependence on God and in the spirit of worship, 
they redeem the social life from the aridity and shallow¬ 
ness of secularism. These people constitute what William 
James described as the “ invisible molecular moral forces 
that work from individual to individual, stealing in through 
the crannies of the world like so many soft rootlets, or like 
the capillary oozing of water, and yet rending the hardest 
monuments of man’s pride, if you give them time.” 6 

Christian action, which springs from the central Chris¬ 
tian motive and estimates right and wrong in the light of 
Christ, has its own peculiar perspective in which it views 
and judges all things. This perspective does not lead to 
any uniformity of outlook on or attitude toward the many- 
colored, many-sided, changing panorama of life. Differ¬ 
ences of insight, of experience and of historical circum¬ 
stance give rise among Christians not merely to divergent 
but also to conflicting views, ideals and programs. There 
is no single Christian ideal for society which Christians can 
unitedly offer to the world and for which the support of 
those who are not Christians can be claimed. But in spite 
of these differences of outlook and ideal the attitude of 
Christians, since it is prompted by the Christian motive 
and inspired by values different from those prevailing in 
society, acts as a leaven. It is an indisputable historical 
fact that the Christian judgment of society’s ideals and prac¬ 
tices has had a far-reaching influence on the secular life and 
brought about changes in its standards and values. 

Today, when the direct action and influence of the 
church are in many quarters restricted or disregarded, an 
exceptional importance attaches to this indirect influence 
through the lives and attitudes of individuals on the pre¬ 
vailing cultural ideals and the unconsciously and instinc¬ 
tively accepted values that determine the life of a particu- 

6 Letters of William James, II, 90. 


The Church in Corporate Life 189 

lar age. Even when Christianity is openly repudiated and 
the corporate life is governed by entirely other principles 
the possibility still remains of giving sociological expres¬ 
sion to Christian motives and points of view through this 
indirect influence. Programs which Christians, prompted 
by their understanding of life, recommend or support may 
be accepted by those who are not Christians as sound and 
wise. In this way a scarcely noticed but profound influence 
may be brought to bear on the whole social order. It is true 
that there cannot be a Christian social order or a Christian 
world order unless it is composed of Christian men and 
women. But it may mean much that the standards and 
ideals of an age are influenced so as to create an environ¬ 
ment more favorable for Christian life, that injustices and 
social evils are progressively remedied and that a new spirit 
is infused into politics, industry, education and other social 
activities. 

If the spread of this leaven be our primary aim the pres¬ 
ent thought and activities of the church must be reoriented 
toward the achievement of this end. The life of the church 
revolves round two poles. The one is the gospel entrusted 
to it; the other is the world which needs to be saved. The 
activity of the church must always be rooted in and proceed 
from the first. But the danger of losing touch with the 
second is ever present. If this danger has to a large extent 
been realized today it may be the task of our generation, 
taking for this purpose a firmer hold of the gospel, to direct 
its main energies to restoring the severed connection. 

In his recent book, God and the Common Life, Professor 
R. L. Calhoun suggests that the root cause of the present 
evil and distress in the world is the divorce between work 
and worship. Where religion is not rooted in the day’s 
work and the yearly round, a fragmentation of life and a 
sterilization of both the severed parts takes place. “ A 


190 The Church and Its Function in Society 

secularized self-centered daily life on the one hand, and 
formalized pious occasions on the other, become scarred 
fragments which neither taken separately nor added to¬ 
gether can be a living whole.” It is precisely with such 
disjointed members, secularized work and detached wor¬ 
ship, that we have to deal in the modern world. 

If this be our real problem, the obligation rests on us to 
refuse to be content with the present ministries of the 
church which proceed, as they must, from the one center, 
but fail to make sufficient contact with the other. Instead 
of pressing people to avail themselves of these ministries, 
the church must have at least some adventurers who by a 
bold leap will take their stand on the other side of the gulf 
and find a starting point for their ministry in the needs and 
activities of the common life. An effort must be made to 
discover the kind of help and ministry that men and 
women need to strengthen them in the actual conflicts of 
life and to illuminate their tasks. Such an effort, if success¬ 
ful, is bound to lead in countless ways that cannot now be 
foreseen to a fresh and immensely fruitful reorientation 
and reorganization of the life and activities of the church. 


X 


THE WITNESS AND ACTION OF THE CHURCH 
AS AN ORGANIZED SOCIETY 

e may now turn to the witness and action of the 



vv church as an organized society in the corporate life 
— that is, to the action of the church through its ecclesiasti¬ 
cal heads and leaders, through its synods, councils and as¬ 
semblies and other official organs, and through the clergy 
and ministers who are its office-bearers. 

1. THE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH REGARDING THE PUR¬ 


POSE OF man’s EXISTENCE 


The church’s primary responsibility to society is to bear 
public witness to the truth regarding the meaning and 
purpose of life as revealed in Christ. In considering what 
this principle means in practice, we shall do well to remind 
ourselves again that what the church has to proclaim is 
not a law or a set of ideals, but a gospel. It is this message 
of divine redemption that sets men free from bondage to 
the world to serve God in the world as his sons. In the ful¬ 
fillment of this ministry the church is calling into existence 
forces which must have a transforming influence on the 
social order. 

It has to be remembered, further, that the gospel the 
church has to proclaim is not merely a gospel for the indi¬ 
vidual but one of redemption for the world. The Chris¬ 
tian faith is that Christ’s coming has brought about a fun¬ 
damental change in the relation of man to God and has 
initiated a new epoch in human history. The church must 
herald the principles of this new order into which men may 


192 The Church and Its Function in Society 

be redeemed. There is no reason to suppose that the 
church can offer any helpful advice as to how the affairs of 
the world should be conducted on the assumptions of the 
old, unregenerate order. 

It is the task of the church to remind men of the true 
end and aim of their existence. It brings to them an assur¬ 
ance of the value and dignity of man as the object of God’s 
love. In the face of the widespread devaluation of man 
today the church has the high mission of recalling men to a 
sense of the potentialities of their being. In a world in 
which life seems cheap, in which the individual often ap¬ 
pears to be nothing more than a cog in a machine, in which 
multitudes fritter away a trivial existence in a succession of 
new sensations and frivolous pleasures, men need to be 
saved from despair and an aimless existence by the re¬ 
minder that they have been created for responsible self¬ 
hood as the children of God. 

Moreover, in its Christian faith the church possesses a 
true doctrine of community. As against every form of 
egoism and individualism, it believes and proclaims that 
those who are redeemed by God and called to his service 
are bound by an inescapable compulsion to the service of 
their fellow men. Delivered from self-centeredness, which 
is death, into a true existence in trust in God and love 
toward him, they are impelled to express this love to 
God in love to men. They are bound in the love of God 
to an unlimited obligation to their fellows, and these 
bonds constitute true community. On the other hand, 
the Christian conception of community as the free and 
self-giving response of persons to persons is equally op¬ 
posed to any form of collectivism in which persons are sub¬ 
ordinated to organization and the individual is sacrificed 
to the achievement of impersonal ends. The individual 
is not merely the instrument of social purposes, but as the 


The Church as an Organized Society 


1 93 

object of God’s love he is an end in himself. There are ob¬ 
jective values and purposes which society has to pursue 
in order to maintain itself, and in so far as these are neces¬ 
sary for the general good the tasks which they impose may 
be freely taken up by the individual into his will as a 
means by which his love of his neighbor may find expres¬ 
sion and fulfillment. But for the Christian the true mean¬ 
ing and satisfaction of life are found in the dedication of 
his whole personal being to the service of a loving God and 
in relations of trust and responsibility, of love and friend¬ 
ship, between himself and his fellow men. 

2. THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE GOSPEL 

The gospel is not a code of morals or a new law. But 
the new mind formed in those who have responded to the 
revelation of a new reality in Christ must express itself in 
new forms of behavior. It belongs to the prophetic and 
teaching office of the church to expound the implications 
of the Christian understanding of life and to make clear 
the kind of behavior to which belief in the gospel prompts. 

Broad assertion, such as that Christians are bound to 
obey the law of love or to strive for social justice, does not 
go far toward helping the individual to know what he 
ought to do in particular cases. On the other hand, there is 
no way of relieving him of the responsibility of decision 
in concrete situations. To give him precise instructions to 
be literally carried out is to rob him of his moral responsi¬ 
bility as a person. It is not the function of the clergy to 
tell the laity how to act in public affairs, but rather to con¬ 
front them with the Christian demand and to encourage 
them to discover its application for themselves. Hence, as 
between purely general statements of the ethical demands 
of the gospel and the decisions that have to be made in 
concrete situations, there is need for what may be described 


ig4 The Church and Its Function in Society 

as middle axioms. It is these that give relevance and point 
to the Christian ethic. They are attempts to define the 
directions in which, in a particular state of society, Chris¬ 
tian faith must express itself. They are not binding for all 
time, but are provisional definitions of the type of behavior 
required of Christians at a given period and in given cir¬ 
cumstances. How these middle axioms are arrived at is a 
question which we shall examine in the next chapter. 

In the meantime it may help to make the issues clearer 
if we take note of certain questions raised by Professor 
Tawney in a paper written in preparation for the Oxford 
Conference. He states the opposition between the Chris¬ 
tian understanding of life and the standards and values 
of modern society in the following terms: 

Its emphasis on the supreme importance of material riches; 
its worship of power; its idealization, not merely of particular 
property rights, but of property in general and as an absolute; 
its subordination of human beings to the exigencies, or sup¬ 
posed exigencies, of an economic system; its erection of divi¬ 
sions within the human family based, not on differences of per¬ 
sonal quality or social function, but on differences of income 
and economic circumstance — these qualities are closely related 
to the ends which capitalist societies hold to be all-important. 
In such societies, as the practice of the latter clearly shows, they 
are commonly regarded, not as vices, but as virtues. To the 
Christian they are vices more ruinous to the soul than most of 
the conventional forms of immorality. 

The conflict between the prevailing practices of society 
and the Christian attitude toward life becomes especially 
acute in regard to the principle of equality. This prin¬ 
ciple does not mean that all men are equal in capacity, or 
that all ought to fulfill the same functions, or that all 
have identical needs. What it does mean is that all men, 
merely because they are men, are of equal value, and that 
such differences as will still exist in a juster social order 


The Church as an Organized Society 195 

must be based “ not on the externals of class, income, sex, 
color or nationality, but on the real needs of the different 
members of the human family. All social systems and 
philosophies which discriminate between men on the basis, 
not of individual differences, but of these externals, are 
anti-Christian.” It is the duty of the Christian churches to 

assert that class privilege, and the gross inequalities of wealth 
on which it rests, are not only a hideously uncivilized business, 
but an odious outrage on the image of God. While recognizing 
that change must necessarily take time, they should state 
frankly that the only objective which can satisfy the Christian 
conscience is the removal of all adventitious advantages and 
disabilities which have their source in social institutions. They 
should throw their whole weight into the support of measures 
calculated to lead to that end. 

A first step toward the achievement of equality so in¬ 
terpreted is insistence on its application in the care and 
education of the young. It ought to be possible for civi¬ 
lized people, let alone Christians, Professor Tawney sug¬ 
gests, to insist that young people, up to, say, eighteen, shall 
be treated as outside the social conflict, and to refrain from 
ruining their lives by importing into them the vulgar 
irrelevancies of class and income. 

Is it too much to ask that the spokesmen of Christian opinion 
should say publicly and constantly that our callous neglect of 
these young lives is an odious national crime? Is it unreason¬ 
able to suggest that they should throw their whole weight on the 
side of a policy designed to insure that all children and young 
persons, from birth to eighteen, shall be secured, as far as social 
action can secure it, equal opportunities of making the best of 
the powers of body, mind and character with which they have 
been endowed? . . . These are not matters with which the 
churches can properly regard themselves as having no concern. 

To these illustrations from Professor Tawney’s paper 
we may add one other. It relates to the meaning and 


196 The Church and Its Function in Society 

use of power. In one of the most decisive and revolution¬ 
ary of his recorded sayings Jesus drew the sharpest dis¬ 
tinction between the values of his own kingdom and 
those prevailing in the world. “ Ye know,” he said, “ that 
the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great 
ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be 
among you.” He illuminated in a flash the problem of 
power, which is central in the relations of men with one 
another and which in spite of its importance has received 
less attention from Christian thought than it deserves . 1 
The word “ power ” is highly ambiguous. Power in the 
sense of validity, adequacy, effectiveness is a quality of 
being, and the more persons possess it the more they can 
help their fellows. But power in the sense which con¬ 
cerns us here is power over other men. In that meaning 
also it may have its legitimate place in the relations of 
men with one another. It may be an authority derived 
from God, for the right exercise of which men are respon¬ 
sible to him. But in the form of power over others it has 
in it a demonic quality tending always to its perversion. 
It would seem as though sinful human nature could not 
be trusted to use this power over other men without abus¬ 
ing it. Jesus asserts in the most emphatic terms that to 
belong to his kingdom is to renounce such power; or — 
we may perhaps infer — if in the discharge of their worldly 
responsibilities his followers are called to exercise it, they 
must do so in a continual awareness of its dangers. 

No issue touches the life of men so closely today as that 
of power and its use. In the economic sphere it is the 
power of some men to control the lives of others, much 
more even than the inequalities of wealth, that is the 

1 Cf. however the paper by Professor Vycheslavzeff in Die Kirche und 
das Staatsproblem in der Gegenwart, and Tillich, The Interpretation of 
History, pp. 179-202. 


The Church as an Organized Society 197 

fundamental cause of social bitterness and strife. In the 
political sphere, science has placed in the hands of those 
who control the modern state possibilities of power un¬ 
dreamed of by earlier generations. The full extent of 
what can be done by those who hold the reins of power 
is only beginning to be disclosed. Men today, as Bertrand 
Russell has put it, are in danger of becoming drunk with 
power. “ The love of power has thrust aside all the other 
impulses that make the complete human life .” 2 This 
clear insight, by one who is not a Christian, into the great 
struggle which is being fought today in the souls of men 
should rouse Christians from their apathy and help them to 
realize that in it all the church means and believes is at 
stake. 

Each of these illustrations raises issues the adequate 
treatment of which would require a volume of its own. 
They have been introduced only to give point to the 
question whether acceptance of the Christian revelation 
of the meaning of life does not necessarily involve certain 
attitudes and forms of behavior in sharp opposition to 
the habits of ordinary society, and whether we can expect 
the world to pay serious attention to Christian preaching 
unless Christians not only proclaim these principles but 
act on them. Action is something which other men can¬ 
not avoid taking into their calculations. Has Christian¬ 
ity anything distinctive to say about the way men ought to 
act toward their fellows? If it has, then, Mr. Tawney 
urges, the leaders of the churches ought, “ whatever the 
cost, to state fearlessly and in unmistakable terms what 
precisely they conceive that distinctive contribution to 
be. If they do not, then let them cease reiterating second¬ 
hand platitudes, which disgust sincere men and bring 
Christianity into contempt.” 

2 The Scientific Outlook, pp. 156, 274. 


198 The Church and Its Function in Society 

3. POLITICAL ACTION 

When we approach the question of the action proper 
to the church in the political sphere we find on both sides 
of a disputed field a considerable area of agreement. It 
is widely agreed that it is the task of the church to pro¬ 
claim and interpret the ethical implications of the gospel. 
The Christian ethic cannot be accepted and acted on 
without producing consequences in the political field. In 
many situations Christians cannot act in accordance with 
the principles of their faith without provoking political 
controversy. A memorandum submitted by a group of 
leading churchmen in Germany recognizes that, while it 
is not the business of the church to interfere in the poli¬ 
cies of the state, it is none the less necessary that the church, 
in virtue of its responsibility for the spiritual welfare of 
the nation, judge whether these policies in their funda¬ 
mental tendencies are likely to benefit or injure the soul 
of the people. If the latter is the case the church must 
pronounce against them. That is, however, not political 
but pastoral action. No clear dividing line can be drawn 
between the sphere of the church and that of the modern 
cultural state. Where the controlling ideas and aims of 
the state are contrary to the gospel a collision between 
church and state is unavoidable. 

The ethical witness of the church includes the prophetic 
denunciation of evil. As ecclesia militans it is at war with 
everything contrary to the purpose of God. It is com¬ 
mitted to fighting the battles of the Lord, scaling “ every 
crag-fortress that bids defiance to the true knowledge of 
God.” 3 As was said in an earlier chapter , 4 if the church 
is true to its commission its message will be a disturbing 

8 II Cor. 10:5. Arthur S. Way, The Letters of St. Paul. 

* P. 161. 


The Church as an Organized Society 199 

one. To say peace, peace, when there is no peace , 5 is to 
betray its trust and to make itself a cipher in the life of 
the time. 

Mussolini in one of his speeches has expressed the view 
that the solution of the relations of church and state lies 
in the recognition that the state is sovereign in the tem¬ 
poral sphere while the church is sovereign in its own 
proper sphere of the salvation and cure of souls. Some of 
the leaders of the German state claim that the state has 
the right to control and direct the whole of man’s earthly 
existence, while it may be left to the church to care for 
his interests in another life. In England also churchmen 
have been told by politicians that the church has nothing 
to do with politics. These doctrines recall, though with 
a different emphasis, the teachings of Gelasius. They 
might be accepted if Christianity were concerned solely 
with another existence and if the salvation of a man’s 
soul had no consequences for conduct in this life. But if 
the Christian redemption means redemption to live as 
God’s children in this world, there can be no escape from 
the tension between the state’s claims to order the whole 
of life and God’s demand for a total obedience to his will. 
Men’s obedience to the will of God must have, as it has 
had throughout Christian history, immense and incalcu¬ 
lable consequences in the social and political spheres. The 
church, by the mere fact of its existence, is a political 
factor of cardinal importance. 

Further, there is widespread agreement that, whatever 
limitations there may be on the action of the church as 
an organized society, Christians must give expression to 
their faith not only in what one may call the prepolitical 
sphere of the aims, standards and values that determine 
political action, but also in the field of concrete political 
6 Jer. 6:14; 8:11. 


200 The Church and Its Function in Society 

decision and political struggle. To doubt this would be 
to deny the sovereignty of God over the whole of life and 
to surrender large areas of life to the unfettered control 
of the forces of evil. The inactivity of Christians in the 
political sphere would sap the vigor of Christian life since 
it would be denied the opportunity of outward expression. 
Whether Christianity counts for little or much in the 
years before us will depend less on the doctrinal beliefs 
which Christians profess, necessary as these are as the basis 
of conduct, than on the tenacity with which they hold 
to the spiritual values implied in these beliefs and the 
determination with which they seek to realize them in 
practice. 

There can be no question, therefore, that the church 
must bear its witness in the political sphere through the 
faithful and energetic performance by its members of 
that which as Christians they believe to be right. It is 
a quite different question how far the church in its cor¬ 
porate capacity should intervene in political affairs. The 
confusion of these two wholly distinct questions has 
clouded discussions of the relation of the church to politi¬ 
cal action and hampered the effective exercise of Christian 
influence on public affairs. 

The difficulty about the intervention of the church 
as an organized society in the sphere of politics arises from 
the fact that the church is a society organized for purposes 
other than political action. If it enters the political arena 
it runs the risk of obscuring or compromising the pur¬ 
poses for which it exists. We have already insisted that 
these purposes may also be obscured and compromised if 
Christian faith fails to express itself in the political sphere. 
The difficulty lies, further, in the fact that action by the 
church as an organized society means to a large extent 


The Church as an Organized Society 201 

action by those who hold office in the church, i.e., by 
the clergy or by assemblies in which the influence of the 
clergy is predominant. The question which calls for con¬ 
sideration is not whether the influence of the church should 
be exerted in the political sphere — this, as we have seen, 
is unavoidable — but whether and to what extent the in¬ 
fluence of the clergy should be exerted in that field. 

Here again there is wide agreement up to a certain 
point. No one today desires that the church, as an eccle¬ 
siastical organization, should assume the direction of po¬ 
litical or economic life. It is an advance and not a retro¬ 
gression, as the Master of Balliol has pointed out, that in 
the modern world the political and economic spheres have 
emancipated themselves from the ecclesiastical control to 
which they were subject in the Middle Ages . 6 The sub¬ 
ordination of political to religious organizations had re¬ 
sults so undesirable as to excuse in some measure the ex¬ 
tremist reactions of Machiavelli and Hobbes. 

Thus in theory (whatever may be the shortcomings in 
practice) there is no serious disagreement on the belief 
that, on the one hand, the church in its preaching and 
teaching must bear clear and outspoken witness on ethical 
questions, and that, on the other hand, any form of cleri¬ 
cal domination over political and economic life is wholly 
undesirable. But since there is no clear and sharp divid¬ 
ing line between the aims of political action and concrete 
political decisions there remains open a large field for 
debate as to the right course to be followed in practice. 
Both because the questions which arise are infinitely var¬ 
ied in character, and because the right course for a 
Christian individual or assembly to take in a particular 
instance cannot be determined in advance by any abstract 
6 Christianity and Economics , pp. 10 ff. 


202 The Church and Its Function in Society 

rule but must be an act of obedience to God in face of 
the concrete situation , 7 we cannot do more here than di¬ 
rect attention to certain general considerations on both 
sides which must be kept in view in reaching a decision. 

On the one hand, we need to be alive to the danger 
that, in undertaking action in the political field, the church 
may compromise its character as church. In entering the 
political sphere it becomes committed to the pursuit of 
relative ends and involved in the compromises inseparable 
from political action. The church is a worshiping com¬ 
munity in whose worship every relative political judgment 
is brought to the searching test and scrutiny of an absolute 
and divine judgment. There is a danger that this may be 
forgotten if the church in its corporate capacity commits it¬ 
self to a political program. The transition from a religious 
to a political loyalty is easily made, and there may be a sub¬ 
tle and unobserved substitution of other interests and mo¬ 
tives for those which it is the special concern of the church 
to foster. In proportion as the church becomes involved 
in the political arena is there danger of loss of religious 
depth. The attempt to commit the church to social and 
political programs may be a short cut by which we seek 
to escape from the more difficult and costly responsi¬ 
bility of submitting ourselves to those deeper changes of 
disposition and outlook which are in the end a much 
more powerful revolutionary force. 

A second ground for caution is that in every political 
action there is involved not only a choice of ends but 
also of the means most appropriate for achieving them. 
Decisions as to the means best adapted for the realization 
of chosen ends involve rational judgments regarding the 
appropriateness and efficacy of particular measures. On 
these matters there may be legitimate differences of opin- 

7 This point will be discussed more fully in the following chapter. 


The Church as an Organized Society 203 

ion among Christians. The church has no right to commit 
its members to a particular view of them. As a church it 
unites men in a loyalty which transcends the relativities 
of political action. 

A third reason why ecclesiastical assemblies need to dis¬ 
criminate as clearly as possible between ethical guidance, 
which it is their responsibility to give to members of the 
church and which, if it is not to be insipid and innocuous, 
must have reference to concrete evils, and a judgment 
on the measures by which these evils should be remedied, 
is that decisions in regard to the latter can be properly 
taken only by those who have responsibility for the de¬ 
cision. Seen from the inside a problem has many aspects 
that are concealed from the outside. Only those who 
have to act can reach a responsible decision. Advice 
divorced from responsibility is dangerous. It is a healthy 
thing that the expert be exposed to critcism. But it is not 
good for society that the judgment of the trained states¬ 
man or the experienced civil servant or the practical busi¬ 
nessman be replaced by the opinions of well meaning ama¬ 
teurs. What lay at the root of the ineffectiveness of the 
church in the Middle Ages, as Dr. Lindsay points out, 
is that the condemnation of evil practices in economic 
and political life “ came from people who lived outside 
the practical difficulties. One set of men, the clergy, were 
laying down rules for another set of men, instead of in¬ 
spiring these men to lay down rules for themselves.” 8 

On the other hand, it does not follow from the exist¬ 
ence of these real dangers and the necessity of guarding 
against them that the church should refrain from throwing 
the weight of - its influence on occasion on the side of 
particular efforts of social, humanitarian and political 
reform. Life is full of dangers, and we may betray our 

s Christianity and Economics, p. 144. 


204 The Church and Its Function in Society 

cause by caution and inaction as well as by rashness and 
unwisdom. When it has become clear to the Christian 
mind that certain evils are intolerable and must be ended, 
this sentiment must find some means of expression. It 
might ideally be best that the Christian conscience exert 
its influence through associations of Christians for the 
achievement of specific objects. Many such organizations 
exist, either on a definitely Christian basis or drawing their 
support largely from Christians. But where such associ¬ 
ations are not in existence or are inadequate for the pur¬ 
pose in view, we have to ask, as practical men, whether 
there is any method by which the Christian conscience 
can find collective expression other than by voicing its 
demands through the assemblies and courts of the church. 
The history of the churches in the United States and in 
Great Britain — to limit our discussion for the present to 
these two countries — shows many instances of effective 
intervention by the churches on behalf of causes of moral 
and humanitarian reform. Christian opinion voiced by 
the assemblies and courts of the church has had a definite 
influence in shaping public policy. A detailed story of 
these efforts would be of great interest. The reproach 
against the church is not that it has been too active in 
these matters, but that it has been far too acquiescent to 
social injustice, and that in consequence its Christian wit¬ 
ness has been discredited and has lost its sting. If action 
in political and social matters by synods and councils is 
condemned, what alternative method is there by which 
the church may prove itself, not in word only but in deed, 
to be an effective force for righteousness? If the only 
choice is one between serving the cause of God in im¬ 
perfect, faulty and all too human ways, and withdrawing 
from the dust and heat of the conflict to allow the forces 
of evil to go their way unchallenged and unchecked, the 


The Church as an Organized Society 205 

former would seem to correspond most nearly with the 
obligations of those who are called to be soldiers of Christ. 
When truth and falsehood, right and wrong, are in the 
balance, it may be “ less pardonable to be silent than to 
say too much.” 9 

Again, just because the line between ends and means 
cannot be easily drawn it may be legitimate and desirable 
for the church, when it has reached a clear conviction that 
particular social evils must be remedied, to form in the 
light of expert knowledge its own judgment as to how 
this may best be done and to submit these conclusions to 
the public judgment. Sir Josiah Stamp is of opinion that 
the church may quite well have its own experts in these 
matters. While he holds that the real task of the pulpit 
is not with the technique of the political and economic 
machine at all, he would “ welcome occasional instances 
of men with a real aptitude for it undergoing the necessary 
discipline and study, fully equal in time and attention to 
that which they would have to give to any other expert 
or professional curriculum.” 10 This seems to be clear: 
that when the church desires to say how effect should 
be given to its ethical demands, before expressing a judg¬ 
ment it should undertake a thorough examination of all 
the factors in the situation. The present writer once ex¬ 
pressed to the head of an important government depart¬ 
ment— in a country which shall be nameless lest there 
appear to be any reflection on a particular group of 
churches — his appreciation of the generous and unre¬ 
served help the administrator was giving to an inquiry 
under the auspices of the church; the head of the depart¬ 
ment replied that it had seemed to him so unusual to 
find a church organization that wanted to ascertain the 

9 Tawney, The Rise of Capitalism, p. 287. 

10 Method and Motive in a Christian Order, p. 196. 


206 The Church and Its Function in Society 

facts before passing a resolution on the subject that he 
felt the undertaking deserved every encouragement. The 
gibe was not meant to be taken too seriously. The instance 
in question is not an isolated one. The Federal Council 
of the Churches of Christ in America has for nearly twenty 
years had a department of research and education which 
has produced a number of valuable objective reports on 
social questions. But no one conversant with the practice 
of church and religious bodies can doubt that the ad¬ 
ministrator’s comment was not wholly wide of the mark. 
It should be a principle, to the application of which there 
ought to be no exceptions, that the church as an organized 
society should not pronounce on questions of political 
policy or industrial practice until it has not only ascer¬ 
tained all the relevant facts but has also submitted these 
facts and the conclusions drawn from them to those who 
have to deal in a practical capacity with the questions 
involved. 

A guiding principle for the relation between ends and 
means is happily expressed in a letter from a correspondent 
with wide experience of public life in England. The mate¬ 
rial framework of life, says the writer — i.e., the way people 
get their incomes and spend them — affects the whole of 
individual existence. It calls certain motives into play 
and blunts others. The church cannot therefore be in¬ 
different to the structure of this material framework of 
life. It must test economic institutions by the ways in 
which they affect what it believes to be the good life. 
But what the church has to insist on continually is that 
that test be applied. It must recognize that in applying it 
differences of knowledge, understanding, insight and sensi¬ 
tiveness may lead different people to different conclusions. 
If, for example, with reference to the rebuilding of Adelphi 
(a district in London near the Strand famous for its archi- 


The Church as an Organized Society 207 

tecture, by the brothers Adam in the eighteenth century) 
a Christian says, “ I find Adelphi Terrace uninteresting 
and would prefer a handsome modern skyscraper,” there 
is no reason why in spite of his taste he should not re¬ 
main a member of the church. But if he says, “ I think 
Adelphi Terrace beautiful, interesting and historic, but 
of course it must go because naturally it will pay the 
owner of the site to rebuild ” — then, says the writer we 
are quoting, he ought to be excommunicated with bell, 
book and candle. 

4. RESOLUTIONS AND PRONOUNCEMENTS 

Brief reference must be made to the passing of reso¬ 
lutions and the making of pronouncements by church 
assemblies and other religious organizations. These ac¬ 
tions may serve two important purposes. 

The first is the spiritual and moral education of the 
members of the church. It is a necessary and important 
function of the church authorities to provide Christian 
people with ethical guidance. Not only is there no ob¬ 
jection to pronouncements which have this end in view, 
but there is a definite obligation on the authorities of the 
church to furnish such advice and help. Authoritative 
statements of this kind may often be a strength and support 
to individual ministers in interpreting the ethical impli¬ 
cations of the gospel in face of criticism and opposition. 

The second purpose which pronouncements by church 
assemblies may serve is to exert an influence on public 
opinion and through it on the policy of the state. This 
possibility has already been considered. Where there is 
a strong conviction among the church members on a 
particular issue it is natural and legitimate that this con¬ 
viction be made known. 

On the other hand, the practice of passing resolutions 


208 The Church and Its Function in Society 

and making pronouncements is beset with dangers and 
may often be a sheer waste of time. Attention must be 
called to these dangers since the practice in question often 
diverts attention from methods of dealing with social and 
political questions that would be much more effective. 
Reliance on mistaken or futile methods of procedure can¬ 
not but weaken the church’s influence for good. 

Public pronouncements are honest only when they actu¬ 
ally represent the opinions of those they profess to repre¬ 
sent. Dr. Ernest Johnson, who has had large experience 
in these matters, has called attention to the futility and 
dishonesty of committing a church to expressions which 
“ are no more than wishful thinking on the part of a 
minority.” 11 Unreality of thought and statement ought 
to be avoided at all costs if the testimony of the church 
is to be effective. Pronouncements ought to be responsible 
and it ought to be clear who are committed by them. 
It is surprising how often the sense of responsibility may 
be lacking in Christian assemblies. The danger is perhaps 
greatest in interdenominational and international bodies, 
which sometimes pass resolutions as an expression of the 
Christian mind on a particular public issue, when they 
do not in fact represent more than the opinions of the 
more or less chance collection of individuals present at 
the meeting. Pronouncements which do not have behind 
them a solid body of considered and convinced opinion 
can have little or no effect on public action. Astute poli¬ 
ticians and experienced civil servants are quite capable 
of assessing the amount of real force which lies behind 
such resolutions and of attaching to them the weight that 
they deserve. 

Second, the habit of passing resolutions when carried 
to excess defeats its own purpose. Constant repetition 
n The Church and Society , p. 86. 


The Church as an Organized Society 209 

dulls the effect. Where opinions are easily, cheaply and 
glibly expressed they are accorded little public attention. 
They may, if couched in sensational terms, attract a pass¬ 
ing interest, but they have no deep or lasting effect. 

Finally, we have to take account of the great amount 
of valuable time, that might be expended much more 
fruitfully in other directions, which is often spent in the 
passing and debating of resolutions. The difficulty of 
discovering a form of words which neither says something 
wholly innocuous nor on the other hand becomes precise 
in matters on which opinion differs, may lead to long 
hours of debate, resulting in the end in the adoption of 
a formula which is an evasion rather than a solution of 
the problem and which those who in fact disagree are 
able to accept because each is able to interpret it in his 
own sense. Christian assemblies must not allow them¬ 
selves to become involved in futilities of this kind if the 
influence of the church is to count in a world in which 
there are movements that are in deadly earnest. 

5. THE CHURCH AND HERESY 

In considering the action of the church in relation to 
questions of public policy and conduct an important dis¬ 
tinction must be made between occasions on which the 
church, with the approval of a considerable body of its 
members, lends its support to particular proposals for social 
or humanitarian reform, and those occasions in which the 
Christian faith is crucially involved. In the former case 
the question is whether a particular course of action is 
the best or wisest in given circumstances, and if mistakes 
are made no greater harm is done than by other mani¬ 
festations of human fallibility. In the other case matters 
are more serious. A decision has to be made about the 
content and substance of the Christian faith. The Chris- 


210 The Church and Its Function in Society 

tian churches at the present time are for the most part 
disinclined to exercise discipline in matters either of 
belief or of conduct, except in extreme cases or in the 
particular question of divorce. It may be, however, that 
conflict with the new pagan tendencies of our time may 
compel the church at certain points to define what is 
or is not compatible with the Christian faith. We raise 
this question not to express a judgment but to call atten¬ 
tion to its importance. 

What is involved may be made clearer by a reference 
to the correspondence which took place a few years ago 
between Professor Gerhard Kittel and Professor Karl 
Barth. The former maintained in one of his letters that 
it was the privilege of the Christian to recognize every¬ 
where the hand and finger of God. “ If I stand by the 
side of Christ,” he wrote, 

I know nothing in the wide world — no sparrow on the roof¬ 
top, no lily in the field, no sacred history of Israel and the Jews 
“ under the law,” no history of Greek civilization “ without the 
law,” no Palestinian Zealots and no Roman emperor, no Musso¬ 
lini and no Hitler — in which the Almighty Creator of heaven 
and earth, who has revealed himself to me as the Father of Jesus 
Christ, does not exercise his sovereign sway. 

The name of Lenin was not included among the illus¬ 
trations. Barth replied: “ Remain, if you think it right, 
under the swastika. It is equally possible to take one’s 
stand under the Swiss cross, or under the double eagle, 
or under the Soviet star.” Kittel, in a further letter, 
maintained that it is contrary to the nature of the church 
to be unable to express a judgment on the concrete hap¬ 
penings of historical life. A church that remained in¬ 
different to what was taking place in the world — such 
as in what happened on January 30, 1933 — would deny 
the authority and responsibility entrusted to it by the 


The Church as an Organized Society 211 

Lord of the church, who is at the same time the Lord of 
history. And he went on to assert in italics that “ if the 
decision of world history in the life of a people lay be¬ 
tween the Soviet star and the Germany of January thirti¬ 
eth, the church under God’s Spirit and God’s Word is 
not so poor as to lack full authority to say whether the 
decision of that day was from God or from Satan.” 12 

If a church declares a certain cause to be the work 
of Satan, it would seem to follow that it must exclude from 
its membership those who identify themselves with it. 
For, as St. Paul insisted, there can be no fellowship be¬ 
tween Christ and Belial. The question therefore arises 
how far a church is justified in expressing a judgment 
as a church on historical events of this nature. Professor 
Karl Ludwig Schmidt, in commenting on this correspond¬ 
ence , 13 maintains that such judgments of historical hap¬ 
penings are not only permissible to Christians but are 
their definite responsibility and obligation; they cannot 
however be judgments of the church. To admit the 
latter would be to recognize in the contingent events of 
history a second source of revelation independent of the 
supreme revelation of God in Christ. Moreover, a judg¬ 
ment of the church must be one which is the judg¬ 
ment of the church, for example, in France and in Eng¬ 
land equally with the church in Germany. A judgment 
of the church is a judgment which declares that to hold 
the contrary view is to deny the Christian faith, and 
the church through its authorities ought not to impose 
on its members as an article of faith a judgment into which 
there must enter an interpretation of the immense com¬ 
plexities of a historical situation. 

While many would agree with this point of view, the 

12 Ein theologischer Briefwechsel, pp. 10, 30, 34. 

13 Theologische Blatter, November, 1934. 


212 The Church and Its Function in Society 

question remains whether there may not be attitudes and 
attachments in the political and economic spheres which 
the church must declare to be irreconcilable with the 
Christian faith and consequently with membership in the 
Christian church. It is doubtful whether the church can, 
or ought to, pronounce judgment on communism, or 
capitalism, or fascism as such, since each of these comprises 
a bewildering variety of aims and activities, and the judg¬ 
ment becomes significant only when it states much more 
precisely what features in each are approved or condemned. 
A man may be a National Socialist because he believes 
government by the party to be in the best interests of 
the nation, or a member of the Communist party because 
he regards its aims as leading most directly to the eman¬ 
cipation of the laboring classes, or a supporter of capital¬ 
ism out of a sincere conviction that under present con¬ 
ditions the sum of human misery would be increased and 
not diminished if any other system were substituted for 
it — and in all these cases he can still hold fast to his ulti¬ 
mate Christian belief. However vehemently other Chris¬ 
tians may dispute any of these conclusions, and for them¬ 
selves regard it as incompatible with the Christian 
understanding of life, it would be an unjustifiable and 
presumptuous confidence in the powers of human judg¬ 
ment to maintain that in our complex world only one 
reading of the facts of a highly intricate situation can be 
regarded as Christian. 

This conclusion does not, however, preclude the possi¬ 
bility that within these wider complexes of facts issues 
may arise in regard to which the Christian church must 
take a definite stand. The church cannot avoid encounter¬ 
ing in the world attitudes which are a plain denial of the 
Christian understanding of life, nor can it escape the 
necessity of dealing within its own borders with the prob- 


The Church as an Organized Society 213 

lem of heresy. For example, the exaltation of the material 
above the spiritual in the activities of capitalistic society, 
the claim of the national state to be the ultimate authority 
in matters of faith and conduct, and the exercise of ab¬ 
solute power by dictatorships involving the destruction 
of human values are in complete opposition to the claims 
of Christian discipleship. The necessity may arise for the 
church to denounce compromises with these anti-Christian 
forces as heresies which cannot be tolerated. 

It may be that mainly by this negative path of rejecting 
certain beliefs and attitudes as irreconcilable with its 
faith will the church arrive at a clearer understanding of 
its mission and witness to modern society. If there is 
no specific Christian program for social action, there are 
many forms of practice and action plainly incompatible 
with the Christian insight into the meaning of life. Just 
as in the early centuries the creeds of the church took 
their shape largely through the repudiation of particular 
heresies as incompatible with the Christian faith, so in 
our time the path to a clearer perception of the obliga¬ 
tions of Christians in society may lie through the rejection 
of certain types of social conduct, social practice or social 
organization as intolerable for the Christian conscience. 

6 . SOCIETIES AND ORDERS WITHIN THE CHURCH 

It is probable that a large part of the pioneer work in 
this field will have to be undertaken not by the church 
directly, but by societies and orders within it. The dis¬ 
covery of the points of fundamental conflict between the 
Christian faith and the forces which oppose it, and of 
the kind of witness and action that are demanded of Chris¬ 
tians, must be left, in the first instance, to groups within 
the church who are willing to take risks and incur the 
danger of mistakes. New insights are limited in the be- 


214 The Church and Its Function in Society 

ginning to the few, and the number of bold adventurers 
is never large. It is not right that a minority should 
attempt to impose its views on the whole body, nor, on 
the other hand, that the former should be hampered in 
its venture by the dead weight of an uninstructed and im¬ 
perfectly Christian opinion and by the inertia and apathy 
of the mass. 

To such groups of Christians, committed to a definite 
way of life and to the accomplishment of a definite social 
purpose, Dr. Ernest Johnson applies the term “ sect,” and 
he maintains that the incorporation of the sect in this 
sense within the wider and more inclusive body of the 
church is “ by far the most significant thing that can be 
said about the nature of the church when we are seeking 
to discover its social function.” Only thus 

can the church be kept alive and made to feel the most exact¬ 
ing demands of the Christian ideal upon the conscience in 
terms of social effort, and of that individual discipline which 
citizenship in the kingdom requires. The small groups of ad¬ 
venturous and prophetic souls, bent on a radical attack upon 
society as it is, may thus maintain for themselves a fellowship 
of thought, feeling and action, and in so doing may gradually 
lift the entire membership to a higher spiritual temperature . 14 

7 - THE CHURCH AS AN AGENCY OF RECONCILIATION 

It is the task of the church to contend with falsehood 
and error and to resist uncompromisingly what is contrary 
to its faith. But it is also its mission, amid the confused 
political and economic struggles in which it is not always 
easy to distinguish friend from foe, to point to ends which 
lie beyond the relativities of temporal existence and to 
mitigate the bitterness of earthly struggles by uniting men 
in a fellowship which transcends these differences. 

As Professor Reinhold Niebuhr has wisely written: 

14 The Church and Society, pp. 82, 216-17. 


The Church as an Organized Society 215 

The fact is that, at its best, the sense of imperfection and the 
knowledge of forgiveness are the very basis of a vital social 
ethic. The worst human conflicts are conflicts between right¬ 
eous men who are too self-righteous to know how evil they are. 
They are conflicts between nations and cultures who do not 
recognize how partial and relative is every value of human de¬ 
votion. It is the human effort to make our partial values abso¬ 
lute which is always the final sin in human life; and it always 
results in the most bloody of human conflicts. Human conflicts 
are so terrible precisely because human beings are always en¬ 
gaged in the pretension of being like God, that is, fighting for 
some absolute and final good. A profound religion does not 
abolish all conflict in human history. But it mitigates every 
conflict by making men conscious of their creatureliness and 
finiteness . 15 

If it be true that it is possible for a man to be a com¬ 
munist and a Christian, or a fascist and a Christian, then 
it would seem to be possible — to take the most extreme 
instance — that those who hold these conflicting alle¬ 
giances should meet in the morning at the altar and later 
in the day at the barricades. This statement, made in an 
earlier draft of this paper, has been called in question by 
several correspondents. Those who reject the use of 
violence in all circumstances as unchristian cannot, of 
course, admit the second possibility. And it is certainly 
not for us to say what in any given circumstances is the right 
course for the individual to take. 

Yet the conclusion to which the argument of the pre¬ 
ceding chapters would seem to point is that Christians are 
meant to serve God with resolution and energy in political 
life — in an arena, that is to say, where the use of coercion 
and force on occasion is inherent and unavoidable — and 
that, having made their choice, they must not flinch but 
go through with it to the end. Their political loyalty may 
be an act of absolute devotion to the will of God, while 
is Doom, and Dawn (World Problem Series, New York). 


216 The Church and Its Function in Society 

they know at the same time that it is directed to a relative 
and temporal end. The paradox of Christianity is that 
it calls men to the wholehearted service of God in the tem¬ 
poral order and at the same time strips all earthly goods 
of ultimate value. This fundamental paradox of the Chris¬ 
tian life finds expression in the words of Kierkegaard: 
“To abbreviate the hours of sleep by night, and to buy 
up every hour of the day, without sparing oneself, and then 
to understand that all this is jest — that is to be in deadly 
earnest.” 

The church calls men into membership of a universal 
society transcending earthly oppositions and differences. 
In so doing it reminds men of their common humanity 
and of the truth that beyond the fierce conflict of ideologies 
and utopias is the reality of multitudes of ordinary, decent, 
kindly men and women with similar human interests and 
similar human needs. 

How the church may hold to this truth of its universality 
and at the same time, by fearless, uncompromising action, 
fulfill in each age its historical mission can be learned only 
by earnest seeking to know the will of God and courageous 
obedience to that will. At every moment and in every 
situation the church has to face the responsibility of his¬ 
torical decision. 


XI 

THE SPRING OF CHRISTIAN ACTION 


W e have considered the action of the church in society, 
both in its corporate capacity and through the lives of 
its individual members. But we have not yet dealt with the 
fundamental question of the inspiration and guiding prin¬ 
ciples of Christian action. What are the factors that enter 
into and determine historical decision? How may the 
church know and do the will of God? 

Limits of space do not permit in this concluding chapter 
of an attempt, such as was made in the chapter on the 
relation between the church and the world, to present 
separately the answers given by the various Christian tra¬ 
ditions to this question. Nor perhaps is such a balancing 
of opinions what would be generally desired as the con¬ 
clusion of the discussion. The most helpful contribution 
to the common task of ecumenical thought may be to try 
to state some of the major problems that seem to emerge 
from the line of thought that has been followed and to 
indicate some of the conclusions to which the argument 
seems to me to point. I shall try in doing this not to over¬ 
look other views and emphases. The one-sidedness and 
limitations which are inseparable from any individual pres¬ 
entation will receive the needed corrective in the discus¬ 
sions at, and following upon, the Oxford Conference. It is 
by the submission of tentative conclusions for criticism by 
other minds that thought is advanced and progress made 
toward a larger measure of agreement. 

217 


218 The Church and Its Function in Society 


1 . THE URGENCY OF THE PROBLEM 

The question of the ends of life has become in our day 
more acute than ever. We live in a period of deep moral 
uncertainty. The question of what is the right life had 
not the same urgency for generations which lived in the 
shelter and security of a firm tradition. Western civiliza¬ 
tion has been built up on the basis of a conception of life 
derived from the Christian revelation and from the 
Hellenic and Roman traditions. With the rejection of 
the Christian foundational tradition, it was inevitable that 
the system of morals resting on this foundation should be 
called in question. We are living in the midst of an almost 
complete anarchy of ideas in regard to the principles which 
should govern both personal and social behavior. The 
western world no longer possesses unity. Rival concep¬ 
tions of life, partly new and partly the revival of ancient 
beliefs, are struggling to impose themselves on society and 
to mold it in accordance with their own patterns of thought 
and behavior. 

In the midst of this conflict and chaos stands the church, 
divided, perplexed and relatively ineffective. The more 
clearly we see what needs to be done, the more deeply are 
we conscious of the present spiritual poverty. The sure 
insight, the fire and the prophetic power for which the situa¬ 
tion calls are wanting. 

The call to the church is to take its part in the creation 
of a new world. This high mission cannot be fulfilled by 
mere attempts to revive or maintain traditional moral ideas, 
since moral ideas are always relative to historical situations 
and the traditional moral values of Christianity are the 
church’s response to the demands of a particular period. 
The task of a living church is not to defend the forms in¬ 
herited from a former age, but in loyal response to the call 


The Spring of Christian Action 219 

and guidance of God in the present situation to create the 
new forms which that situation requires . 1 

2 . AN ETHIC OF INSPIRATION 

The only way in which the church can accomplish its 
task is by standing firmly on its own foundations. It must 
not allow itself to be brought into bondage to other forces; 
it must keep itself free from entangling alliances. It can¬ 
not, indeed, lift itself out of history or dissociate itself from 
the life and thought of the age, nor can it do its work in 
the world without entering into combination with other 
movements that are reshaping human institutions. But it 
must jealously maintain the independence and purity of 
its own point of view. It must refuse to be brought into 
subjection to or must emancipate itself from nationalism 
or capitalism or humanistic liberalism or any system of 
ideas not derived from its own central faith. Only from a 
center beyond society can it criticize society and help it to 
reach a new orientation. We are brought back to the vital 
question with which our discussion began — whether hu¬ 
man history has a decisive center . 2 Without such a center 
there is no criterion to give direction to historical action. 

The basis of the Christian ethic is faith in a living, per¬ 
sonal God who has disclosed his grace and his will in Jesus 
Christ. The gift and the promise are prior to any ethical 
demand. 

From this general statement probably few Christians 
would dissent. But the truth on which we wish to insist, 
in opposition to much of the traditional interpretation of 
Christian morality, is that the fundamental and charac¬ 
teristic thing in Christian action is not obedience to fixed 

1 Cf. an article by Dr. N. Stufkens in the Student World, Third Quar¬ 
ter, 1931. 

2 Pp. 91 ff. 


220 The Church and Its Function in Society 

norms or to a moral code, but living response to a Person. 
With the Archbishop of York we would reject decisively 
the view which has long been dominant in Christian 
thought — that conceiving of revelation primarily as the 
communication of a deposit of truth —and agree with his 
insistence that “ the knowledge of God can be fully given 
to man only in a person, never in a doctrine,” and that 
“ what is offered to man in any specific revelation is not 
truth concerning God but the living God himself.” God 
is at work in the world not as a static principle but as a 
living Person, “ expressing his constancy through appro¬ 
priate variations.” 3 

The Christian ethic is distinctive in that it is what may 
be described as an ethic of inspiration rather than an ethic 
of ends. Its primary concern is with the source of action 
in a living fellowship with God, rather than with the goal 
to be attained. This view is at variance with the Thomist 
doctrine of a hierarchy of ends — though that is not to say 
that the reality of personal fellowship with God which we 
desire to stress is not a living element in Roman Catholic 
piety. The view we are advancing differs also from many 
interpretations of the social gospel which emphasize al¬ 
most exclusively the attainment of certain defined ends, 
and from any conception whatever of the Christian ethic 
which tends to put a new law in the place of the gospel. 

The view that the spring of Christian action is response 
to a God who is free and sovereign and who in the living 
present makes known his will to those who humbly seek 
to know it, does not involve arbitrariness or individualism. 
The God to whom we are called to respond is not capri¬ 
cious but constant in his dealings with men. His will in 
each new situation in which men find themselves can be 
learned only in the light of his will already revealed in 
8 Nature, Man and God (Gifford Lectures), pp. 299, 321-22. 


The Spring of Christian Action 221 

Christ, in the Bible and in the experience of the church. 
This point will be brought out more fully in what follows. 
The truth which we desire to affirm finds its most adequate 
expression in the words of St. Paul, “ Because ye are sons, 
God sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts and 
in his description of the new covenant as one “ not of the 
letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth but the spirit 
giveth life.” 

The primary concern of the Christian ethic is not with 
ends, purposes or programs, but with faith and obedience. 
The ends of life God has kept hidden in his own hands. 
God is Creator and calls men to be the agents of his crea¬ 
tive activity. The contrast between the conception of 
God’s activity implied in the Christian doctrine of God as 
Creator and any view achieved by Greek thought is strik¬ 
ingly brought out by M. B. Foster in his small volume, The 
Political Philosophy of Plato and Hegel. 4, The activity of 
the demiurge, as that of the craftsman, is conceived as the 
imposing of a given form on a given matter. But the Crea¬ 
tor is free, not only from the latter of these limitations, but 
from both. This fact may be illustrated from the highest 
forms of art. The artist is not controlled by a preconceived 
plan. He has not an idea of his poem or picture which 
exists independently of the realization. God as Creator has 
not a purpose by which his activity is determined. Chris¬ 
tians are called to share in his creative work, but this does 
not mean that they have a plan or program, clear in its out¬ 
lines, for the realization of which they must work. Their 
calling is rather to observe how God is at work, to seek 
humbly to know his will and obey his behests. 

Here, work enough to watch 

The Master work, and catch 

Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool’s true play. 

4 Pp. 180 ff. 


222 The Church and Its Function in Society 

Christ gave expression to this profound truth when he said, 
“ The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth 
the Father do.” 

If action is to be effective in the social sphere it is of 
course essential that there be definite objects of attack and 
pursuit. Without specific programs nothing will be done. 
It is not for one moment suggested that the church’s re¬ 
sponse to God’s call should not issue in the adoption by the 
church, or by groups within the church, of particular poli¬ 
cies for the redress of social evils. It has been already 
urged 5 that the formulation of middle axioms, defining 
the forms in which at a given period and in given circum¬ 
stances the Christian law of love can find most appropriate 
expression, is an urgent need at the present time. Such 
collective judgments of the requirements of Christian con¬ 
duct are not only permissible but imperative. 

It is entirely consonant with the view that has been 
stated that the church should recognize certain evils as 
those against which it is specially called to contend in our 
time, evils such as the exaltation of the material over the 
spiritual and the indifference to material injustice in capi¬ 
talist societies, the demonry of nationalism, and the de¬ 
struction of human values by dictatorships. We have al¬ 
ready urged , 6 moreover, that it is necessary for Christians, 
individually and in association, to participate actively in 
movements for the establishment of social justice and the 
advancement of the common good. Only in this way can 
Christian faith become effective in the world of actual fact 
and prove that it has a meaning for the life that now is as 
well as for that which is to come. 

The Christian ethic, in proportion as it is true to its 
own nature, is characterized on the one hand by a sober 
6 Pp. 189-90. e pp. 174 , 199 , 212-13. 


The Spring of Christian Action 223 

realism and a restraining sense of human finitude, and on 
the other hand by a firm assurance of the ultimate triumph 
of the good. The Christian cannot surrender himself to 
utopian dreams of a Christian state, a Christian economic 
order or a Christian world order. He knows that only 
Christian men can constitute a Christian society. He is 
under no illusions in regard to the reality and extent of the 
evil in the world. He is not a pessimist but a realist. So 
long as evil persists in men’s hearts it will find in every 
new arrangement of society new forms in which to manifest 
itself. “ Life,” as Troeltsch maintained in a passage often 
quoted, “ remains a battle which is continually renewed 
upon ever new fronts. For every threatening abyss which 
is closed, another yawning gulf appears.” 7 The Christian 
attitude is opposed to any form of titanism. The responsi¬ 
bility for the world does not rest on human shoulders. It 
is in the hands of a higher wisdom. It is foolish conceit to 
believe that puny man is meant to carry the load of the 
universe. 

But the Christian knows also that God is at work in the 
world and at war with evil. He knows that he is called to 
fight the Lord’s battles. It is in the actual present world 
that he is called to serve God. It is there that he must en¬ 
counter and attack the forces of evil. Hence his concern 
is to discover what are the specific tasks which in his time 
the church is called by God to undertake. To these he will 
commit himself with his whole energy. He is distrustful 
of all ambitious programs. He believes that God is the 
Lord of history and that history has a meaning. Vast issues 
may depend on men’s fidelity and their response to the call 
of God; consequently it is of great moment that the church 
be able to discern the signs of the time and in each crisis of 

7 The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, II, 1013. 


224 The Church and Its Function in Society 

history fulfill its appointed task. But the results of human 
effort cannot be predicted, and the Christian is content to 
leave them in the hands of God. 

In contrast with the Christian attitude, which is prima¬ 
rily concerned with the source and spring of action, the 
dominant faiths of the modern world — liberalism and 
humanitarianism, communism, national socialism and 
fascism — have this in common, that all have in view spe¬ 
cific goals which they hope to see realized within the tem¬ 
poral order. They are secularized forms of the Christian 
expectation of the kingdom of God. They reject the 
center which for Christians gives history its meaning. 
Having abandoned the Christian hope, they regard the 
church as superfluous, or they try to incorporate it as part 
of the social and political movement and make it an instru¬ 
ment for furthering their ends, or they persecute it as a 
hindrance to the realization of their purposes. Yet in all 
these movements there are elements of truth. They are 
inspired by men’s passionate desire for a new and better 
world. The ears of Christians ought to be open to the 
needs which these movements are seeking to meet, and to 
the hopes which they inspire. The church is partly respon¬ 
sible for their emergence in history since its preaching has 
too often tended to lay the whole emphasis on the salvation 
of the individual in a world beyond the present, and 
failed to proclaim a universal hope for the world. 

It is not of course suggested that the church should have 
its own political program distinct from these other move¬ 
ments. It is both the strength and the weakness of Chris¬ 
tianity that it has no specific political program. The only 
practical choice today is among the systems mentioned. 
If Christians are to take their part in the political life of 
the time, they have no alternative but to fulfill their politi¬ 
cal responsibilities within one or other of these movements. 


The Spring of Christian Action 225 

Having made their choice they are under obligation to 
give loyal support to the cause they have espoused. Yet it 
is always with a reserve. The Christian has to show a de¬ 
votion equal to that of any, and yet never to forget that the 
end he is pursuing is a relative one. Within these move¬ 
ments Christians must be loyal workers for the cause, and 
yet continually bring to bear on its aims and activities a 
criticism derived from their own perspective. They may 
thus help to redeem the movement of which they are a part 
from some of the dangers and weaknesses inherent in all 
human undertakings. 

3. THE PROBLEM OF COMPROMISE 

Action in the social and political spheres, whether by the 
church or by individual Christians, involves cooperation 
with those who are not Christians. This consideration 
brings up the question of compromise and the many per¬ 
plexities which it creates for the Christian conscience. The 
subject is too large for discussion here, and the question of 
Christian obligation in the various spheres of the common 
life is the subject of other volumes in connection with the 
Oxford Conference. A brief reference may be made, how¬ 
ever, to its bearing on the view of the Christian ethic which 
we have been considering. 

It is important to be clear what is the question which 
is the primary concern of the Christian. It is not in the 
first instance the question. What is the Christian solution 
of a particular problem of society? On the assumptions 
on which society is attempting to deal with the problem 
there may be no specifically Christian solution. The pri¬ 
mary question for the Christian is not how an unchristian 
or partially Christian society can solve its problems, but 
how the church, or the individual Christian, or a group of 
Christians can in a given situation know and do the will of 


226 The Church and Its Function in Society 

God. Dominant in the mind of the Christian must always 
be the sense of his special vocation as a Christian, called to 
be God’s instrument for the advancement of his kingdom. 
We have already seen 8 how profound an influence, though 
often scarcely perceptible in its operation, may be exer¬ 
cised by those who thus bring into the activities of the com¬ 
mon life a new perspective and new standards and values. 

But the common purposes of society, in which the 
Christian participates, are never wholly identical with, and 
may sometimes be wholly contrary to, the ends which the 
Christian is called to serve. Has the dynamic view of 
Christian obligation which we have been considering any 
light to shed on the problem with which the Christian is 
confronted when those with whom he acts, and cannot help 
acting, do not share the Christian purpose? 

The fact must always be faced that our natural indo¬ 
lence and cowardice continually tempt us to follow the 
line of least resistance and to compromise with evil. Ex¬ 
perience shows only too plainly the extent to which Chris¬ 
tians tend to conform to the prevailing standards of society. 
Every such compromise is sin, and has to be faced as such 
by each Christian in countless acts of daily decision in 
which his loyalty and fidelity are tested. 

It is, however, another matter to allow ourselves to be¬ 
come perplexed and discouraged through a mistaken view 
of God’s will as something static. The will of God, which 
we have to fulfill, is not an immutable law existing in cold 
remoteness above the scene of the struggle, but the holy and 
loving will of One who understands and sympathizes with 
us in the conflict. While God’s holiness calls us to be per¬ 
fect as our Father in heaven is perfect, his will for us is con¬ 
cerned not with what might be done in an ideal world but 
with what he desires in the present situation. We are not 
8 Pp. 187 ff. 


The Spring of Christian Action 227 

responding to him as a Person when we detach the law of 
love from his living will in the present and set it up as an 
abstract ideal. There is a particular action which God 
wills that we should take in particular given circumstances, 
which in their totality we reverently accept as his ordering 
of the world. Our task is to discern that will and fulfill it. 

This truth is dangerous for those with unlit lamps and 
ungirt loins. It may lead to a facile acquiescence to con¬ 
ventional standards as the best that is possible in the cir¬ 
cumstances. But such yielding is possible only if we forget 
the cross, with its continual rebuke and challenge to our 
selfishness and complacency. The gospel is our great pro¬ 
tection against surrender to the line of least resistance. If 
we think of Christianity primarily as demand, we tend to 
reduce the demand to what is within our compass. But if 
the gospel is gift and promise, the love of Christ constrains 
us and we are driven to press on to apprehend that for 
which we have been apprehended by Christ Jesus. 

4. KURIOS CHRISTOS 

The controlling factor in Christian decision is the truth 
expressed in the earliest of Christian confessions, “ Christ 
is Lord.” Christian faith, we cannot remind ourselves too 
often, is the grateful and glad acknowledgment of a reality. 
Only if it has an objective and unalterable center has it 
power to move the world. It finds its simple but adequate 
expression in the confession, “ Christ is Lord.” This is the 
source, center and end of Christian action, the ultimate 
touchstone of what is Christian and what is not Christian. 
All knowledge derived from other sources, however valid 
within its own range, must be viewed in the light of this 
unique revelation and held in subordination to its su¬ 
preme claims. 

The Christian faith is faith in the incarnation, the cross 


228 The Church and Its Function in Society 

and the resurrection. The church, in some of its branches 
and at some periods in its history, has been tempted to lay 
the chief emphasis on one of these truths to the neglect of 
the others. Our need today is to recover the Christian 
faith in its wholeness. 

We cannot make these assertions without reminding 
ourselves again 9 that for multitudes of men today they 
seem to have no relevance to the actual problems of life 
and to lack the vital meaning which would “ command a 
total act of the whole moral being ” and challenge men to 
a real decision. If we dare to make the confession, “ Kurios 
Christos ” it must be with a deep awareness of the tasks to 
which it calls us. 

Christ is no longer present in the flesh. How can the 
generation living today know of him and believe in him 
unless in some measure he is revealed in the lives of those 
who confess his name and in social institutions which are 
being transformed by his Spirit? It is this question which 
gives such profound significance to the Christian witness in 
social and political life. 

Christianity has survived because in generation after 
generation it has found embodiment in lives of persuasive 
quality. Doctrine is often puzzling, but life is convincing. 
Conquest of fear, victory over circumstances, happiness 
springing from a fundamental faith in life, endurance, jus¬ 
tice, mercy, compassion and love are qualities which fill 
with a living meaning the word which is preached. To 
many minds Christian affirmations about the meaning of 
life are unconvincing because they have found too little 
embodiment in the actual relations of men with one an¬ 
other in society. Too wide a gulf between doctrine and 
life, subconsciously felt even more than explicitly recog¬ 
nized in consciousness, has invested the Christian scheme 

9 Cf. pp. 93 ff. 


The Spring of Christian Action 229 

of life with a character of unreality. The tremendous affir¬ 
mations of the Christian faith would seem more credible if 
the demand for the acceptance of the truth of facts relating 
to the distant past and of dogmas which for many are diffi¬ 
cult to understand were reinforced by the evidence of a 
society of which these truths were the sustaining principle 
and transforming power. 

Faith in the incarnation gives to human life a dignity 
and value that are proof against all attacks of pessimism. 
To believe in the cross is to believe that God’s love is in¬ 
exhaustible and that all his dealings with men are 
prompted by his love. Those whose eyes have been opened 
to this revelation are constrained in all their relations with 
other persons to have the mind of Christ. In the cross, in 
which the life of Christ found its most complete expression, 
lies the determining principle of Christian action. Pro¬ 
fessor H. H. Farmer writes: 

Unless there is in the Christian disciple, in the sphere of 
human relationships, an increasing sensitivity, practically im¬ 
plemented, to the infinite demands of the love of God, to the 
shocking sin and tragedy of lovelessness, to the costly way, re¬ 
vealed in Calvary, which must be trod by God and in some 
measure by those who know God in Christ, if the thing is ever 
to be set right, it is difficult to see what the specifically Christian 
vocation in human life really amounts to in the end . 10 

Faith in the resurrection is the spring of undying hope. 
Without the resurrection the cross is unrelieved tragedy. 
The faith that Christ is risen is the assurance of the ulti¬ 
mate triumph of the good. We fall too easily into making 
a “ theology of the cross ” an excuse for our lack of faith 
and powerlessness. The church has no greater need than 
a reborn faith that God has not abdicated and that Christ 
is alive and is carrying forward his work — a faith that will 

10 In a contribution to Christian Faith and the Common Life, in which 
this theme is impressively developed. 


230 The Church and Its Function in Society 

free us from our timidity and inaction and send us forth 
as fearless witnesses of the truth that the meaning of human 
existence is revealed in Jesus Christ. 

5. THE VENTURE OF FAITH 

The assertion that the spring of Christian action is re¬ 
sponse to the call of the living God needs to be guarded 
against misunderstanding. There are those who conceive 
of the individual as standing in stark isolation in the pres¬ 
ence of God listening to his command in the here and now 
and acting in obedience to it. Any attempt to seek shelter 
and refuge in a general principle or universal of any kind, 
they would maintain, would be an evasion of the responsi¬ 
bility of concrete decision. But the truth is that every con¬ 
crete situation is shot through with laws, connections, 
meanings. The individual takes into it his own past ex¬ 
perience, the influences of the tradition in which he has 
been brought up, and a conscience molded by the ideas and 
standards of the society to which he belongs. He brings to 
his decision what he already is — his previous experiences, 
the lessons of faith he has learned, the limitations resulting 
from past slackness and failure; an insight deepened and a 
conscience made sensitive by the steeping of the mind in the 
profound truths of the Bible, or on the other hand a mind 
incapable, by nature or training or past neglect, of per¬ 
ceiving what God could reveal to one more sensitive to 
spiritual things. God is not bound by a man’s past, but 
neither does he act in disregard of it. A right decision is 
not the outcome of the moment when it is made but is the 
fruit of many preceding acts of faith and obedience. The 
law of the spiritual life is that to him that hath shall be 
given, and a disciplined life is the condition of apprehend¬ 
ing God’s best and highest purpose. 

The Christian, whether he is fully aware of it or not, 


The Spring of Christian Action 231 

makes his decisions as a member of the church. In deter¬ 
mining what conduct is required of him as a Christian the 
individual is guided by the tradition of the Christian com¬ 
munity of which he is a member. He draws on the rich 
heritage of Christian experience through the centuries. 
He models his conduct on the lives of other Christians he 
has known. Christian decisions are those which are made 
in obedience to the Word which the church proclaims. 
They are the expression of lives nourished by the common 
worship and sacraments of the church and educated and en¬ 
riched through fellowship with other Christians. There is 
an element of immediacy and originality in all true Chris¬ 
tian discipleship. But this is always combined with de¬ 
pendence on the wider experience and deeper insights of 
the Christian society. 

Moments of creative and heroic choice may come to 
every man, when an unexpected emergency evokes all the 
latent resources of his nature and calls him to stake his life 
on his decision. But the majority of men ordinarily fol¬ 
low the beaten path. They are dependent on the guidance 
of pastors and teachers. They have to draw on the wisdom 
and insight of others. They need the leadership of pro¬ 
phetic spirits. The constitution of the church is designed 
to meet these needs. God has given to “ some to be apos¬ 
tles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some, 
pastors and teachers . . . unto the building up of the 
body of Christ.” 

In making his decision the Christian does not and can¬ 
not detach himself from the social tradition of the general 
community. His outlook has been formed by the ways of 
behavior and scale of values prevailing in society. The 
tradition of the community sets its indelible impress on 
each individual and determines in large measure what he 
understands by good and evil. The current social practice 


232 The Church and Its Function in Society 

is the soil out of which individual decisions grow. There 
may be acute conflicts between the Christian demand and 
the prevailing practice, but there are no sharp boundaries 
between the Christian ethos and that of the community. 
They act and react on each other. The Christian faith 
creates its own morality, but the raw material is provided 
by the prevailing custom. Inherited custom is given a new 
content and meaning when it is subordinated to the claim 
of God. It is no longer the same as it was before being 
Christianized. Christian decision cannot avoid taking ac¬ 
count of traditional moral standards because it is from 
these that ordinary men draw support and by these that 
their character is formed. The Christian task is not to 
destroy the traditions of the community but to purify and 
elevate them. 

Christian decision involves, further, an understanding 
of the situation to which the action relates. If we are to 
change reality we must first of all know it. The Christian 
who has to act in practical and public life has to act in the 
light of the best scientific knowledge available. This 
knowledge he obtains not from the Christian revelation 
but from rational processes. The experts on whose advice 
he relies may be Christians or non-Christians; in this field 
it is not piety but scientific excellence that is wanted. But 
there is never a sharp dividing line. The conclusions de¬ 
rived from scientific study may take on a new and deeper 
meaning when incorporated in the total Christian view of 
a situation and seen in its light. 

All these factors enter into Christian decision, whether 
it is that of the church or of the individual Christian or of 
a group of Christians. Yet when due weight has been 
given to each, the actual decision is a venture of faith. It is 
a living response in a new situation to the call of a personal 
God. To respond to an unconditional demand is always 


The Spring of Christian Action 233 

to reach beyond the security of experience and to put life 
to the hazard, to engage in a wager in which the stake is 
ourselves. Life cannot be lived, as great Christian think¬ 
ers like Pascal and Kierkegaard have insisted, without tak¬ 
ing risks. A church which would fulfill its mission in the 
world today must be one which is prepared to take large 
risks or to allow its members to take large risks. 

A right decision cannot be made in advance by a careful 
balancing of principles and considerations. It can be made 
only in the moment of decision itself. This does not mean 
that it may not and ought not to be preceded by a long 
period of reflection in which all the relevant factors are 
weighed and tested. Nor does it mean that there are not 
settled convictions and tried teachings of experience which 
for a good man are not open to question and which he 
would not dream of discarding. These are indeed the basis 
and condition of a right decision. The more important a 
decision the more necessary it is that a man should bring 
to it his total experience. But each situation is new and 
calls for a venture into the unknown. And for the Chris¬ 
tian that venture is a response to what he believes to be the 
will of God. 

It belongs to the nature of venturous decision that it may 
be mistaken. The Christian has indeed a light by which 
he can act. History has for him a center which gives it a 
meaning. Christ has shown us what love demands of life. 
We know in some measure the kind of life to which we are 
called. We can recognize that some things are wholly con¬ 
trary to his will. But these insights do not provide infalli¬ 
ble guidance for concrete action or eliminate the responsi¬ 
bility and risks of decision. The Christian statesman may 
have misread the factors in a situation and may take a de¬ 
cision the consequences of which bring misery to millions. 
It is conceivable that a body of pacifists, acting from the 


234 The Church and Its Function in Society 

sincerest motives, may by weakening resistance to aggres¬ 
sion allow the establishment of tyranny for generations. 
In a world that is as yet far from Christian, that is in many 
of its manifestations definitely hostile to Christ, in a world 
so complex that the effects of action are unforeseeable and 
incalculable, we cannot say with confidence what forms of 
action will make a better order. Actions inspired by the 
noblest intentions may be caught in the vortex of human 
activity and struggle and produce results wholly different 
from those their authors willed. We can only act in faith 
and leave the results in the hands of God. 

Since responsibility is real and the consequences of de¬ 
cision are unforeseeable, life would be impossible without 
the reality of God’s forgiveness. It is because he believes 
in atonement and in God’s power to overrule our blunders 
and follies and sins and make them subserve his own un¬ 
changing purpose of good that the Christian can act with 
confidence and courage and decide without fear and with¬ 
out regret. 

Christian action is staking everything on the reality of 
God, as he has been revealed in Jesus Christ. 

6 . DIRECTIONS OF ADVANCE 

If there is to be a release of the creative energies which 
are born when men commit themselves in acts of faith and 
obedience to the will of the living God, what practical 
form may the fresh venture be expected to take? The 
course of our thought suggests two directions in which it 
may find expression. 

The first is in the spontaneous activities of groups of 
many kinds which recognize and respond to the call to de¬ 
vote themselves to some particular task. No large response 
from the church as a whole can be related to any single 
center. The hours of the day are too few and human ca- 


The Spring of Christian Action 235 

pacities too limited to permit of the organization from 
one center of the infinitely varied responses which are de¬ 
manded from the church. Moreover, it is given to only an 
infinitesimal number of persons, possessed of rare capaci¬ 
ties and placed in positions of large public responsibility, 
to exert more than a negligible influence on the concerns 
of society as a whole. What is in some measure in the con¬ 
trol of each of us is our immediate environment. It is there 
that the Christian witness has to be borne and that Chris¬ 
tian action can be taken. If the church is to be a living 
force in the world its influence will be exerted through an 
endless multiplicity of “ cells ” consisting of persons who 
respond to a call to devote themselves to specific tasks in 
a limited environment. The separate and independent 
activities of such groups, drawn together for a great variety 
of different purposes, is one way in which a rebirth of 
Christian faith and love and of the creative energies which 
flow from them would find natural expression. 

The other direction in which advance may be looked 
for has relation to the life of the church as a whole. We 
have already been reminded 11 that while Christians differ 
deeply about the nature of the church they all believe that 
there is and can be only one universal society acknowledg¬ 
ing Jesus Christ as Lord. Yet today the church is divided 
not only in organization and government but in the under¬ 
standing of the gospel and of its implications for conduct. 
The church cannot hope in such a condition to meet the de¬ 
mands of the present situation. It is a vital question how 
advance may be made toward a larger unity. 

Already the churches are beginning increasingly to 
recognize their responsibility for one another. The con¬ 
cern or weakness of one is seen with growing clearness to 
be the concern of all. This consciousness of the univer- 


11 p. 77 - 


236 The Church and Its Function in Society 

sality and unity of the church needs to be fostered by all 
possible means, and on the authorities of the individual 
churches rests the responsibility for the systematic edu¬ 
cation of their members in an understanding of the nature 
of the church as a universal society. It would seem nat¬ 
ural also that the increasing appreciation of the ecu¬ 
menical character of the church and the deepening fellow¬ 
ship should seek expression in common action. Action, 
however, is always related to concrete situations, and the 
situations in different countries differ widely. But the 
churches themselves possess the necessary authority to act, 
and with them, therefore, the responsibility for action 
lies. The extent to which such action by the churches 
can advantageously be fostered and coordinated by an in¬ 
ternational organization experience alone can show. 

The field in which ecumenical cooperation seems to be 
most urgently needed and likely to be most fruitful is 
that of common study and thought. But by thought we 
do not mean thought divorced from action, but thought 
arising out of and directed toward the living conflicts 
and tasks of our time; not the type of thought which may 
be criticized as scholastic, academic and lifeless, since 
it “ does not arise primarily from the concrete problems 
of life nor from trial and error, nor from experiences 
in mastering nature and society, but rather much more 
from its own need of systematization.” 12 What is re¬ 
quired is the kind of thinking which will help the church 
to see more plainly amid the confused struggles of today 
its proper tasks, to determine more clearly its relation to 
the forces that are shaping the modern world, and to 
know more surely the heresies which it must oppose if it 
would be true to its own faith. Such thinking would 
be related directly to action, since its aim would be to 
12 Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, p. 10. 


The Spring of Christian Action 


237 

place at the disposal of those in the various churches who 
have to take responsible decisions a growing body of 
knowledge to the shaping of which the ablest Christian 
minds in all countries and the insight and experience of 
the various Christian traditions would have contributed. 

The task is one which can with the greatest advantage 
and greatest economy be undertaken by the churches in 
cooperation on an ecumenical basis; with the greatest 
advantage, because it is the mind of the universal church 
with its variety of historical experience and its wealth of 
different traditions that must be brought to bear on the 
problem; and with the greatest economy, because the nec¬ 
essary resources will be hard to find — resources in money 
and, still more, in personnel, inasmuch as the persons 
possessing the combination of qualities and training nec¬ 
essary for guiding such an undertaking are at present few. 

The problem which confronts those who are unable 
to submit themselves to the rule of a single, central ecclesi¬ 
astical authority is how, without surrender of the priceless 
gift of freedom, they may escape the danger of splitting 
the truth into fragments and may remain bound together 
in a common loyalty to a common faith. The only al¬ 
ternative to truth imposed by authority is truth freely 
accepted because of its inherent power and persuasiveness. 
Is it possible for those who, in spite of their real and deep 
differences, are yet in agreement in regard to what gives 
to human history its central meaning, and who are united 
in the common confession, “ Christ is Lord,” to make 
provision for thinking out together the implications of this 
faith and its significance for the social and political tasks 
of our time? May we hope that, if it were possible to 
enlist the help of the best Christian minds and the deep¬ 
est Christian insight on which the universal church can 
call, there might progressively come into being a body 


238 The Church and Its Function in Society 

of Christian thought which, hammered out under the 
criticism of many different minds and richly fed by the 
various streams of Christian experience and tradition, 
might possess a comprehensiveness, balance and depth that 
would win for it increasingly wide acceptance freely ren¬ 
dered, and draw together in a deepening mutual under¬ 
standing those who are now separated? Progress would 
thus be made toward Christian unity along the surest lines, 
since it would be by the path of free, inward, spiritual 
agreement. That would seem to be the great adventure to 
which the church in this time may be called. 

The church is not far from the end of the second mil- 
lenium of its existence. Empires rise and fall and move¬ 
ments take their rise and spend their force. The church 
can afford and ought to take long views. It has not only 
to think of the responsibilites of today and of tomorrow 
but to prepare for what the unknown future may bring. 
In the midst of what seem to be great events weak men, 
who yet know in whom they have believed, are called, to 
play their part in history. If by a power which is not our 
own we are enabled to make the ventures to which God 
may be calling us, it will be in the strength of the assur¬ 
ance given to us in the words, “ Ye have not chosen me, 
but I have chosen you.” 





























































































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